“It takes commitment from an institution, not just an individual,” in order for PACS to be successful, said David Wild. Formerly a PACS administrator at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and now product manager for Fujifilm Medical Systems USA, Wild presented from firsthand knowledge his presentation, “Operational Management” on Wednesday at SIIM 2007 Pre-Conference Symposium in Providence, R.I. He defined operations as “the power to act, lead, control, organize, maintain, perform.” It’s all about how “data moves” he said. Operational resources should span several roles and departments.

Wild noted the importance of proper testing, saying “it is better to go live late and well than to go live with problems.” He said a plan of attack should be built with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Considers should include clinical, application, hardware/system, disaster recovery/business continuity, upgrades and patch management, and policy development, with an emphasis on HIPAA security.