Hot topics cover the bases in PACS and informatics

Digital mammography

- Agfa: IMPAX MA3000 is a vendor-neutral workstation for digital mammography.

Workflow and monitoring

- DeJarnette: "One of the biggest issues in the PACS marketplace is that there are still a lot of workflow problems. For instance, the workflow that works in a small clinic will not work in a larger setting. That's where the challenges are today."

- Wayne DeJarnette, president and CEO of DeJarnette Research Systems

- Intelerad: At the RSNA meeting, the company will demonstrate IntelePACS monitoring system for PACS administrators.

- NovaRad: In addition to NovaPACS 6.0, Hospital Management Reports will be shown at the RSNA meeting.

- Siemens: The Novius radiology information system includes order entry/registration, supply tracking, event and patient tracking, messaging, reaction tracking, management reporting, online management reporting, and HIPAA auditing.

- Amicas: "Despite the knee-jerk reaction that tries to tell us the 'diagnostic workstation' is most important, when it comes down to it, workflow is the single most important and most discriminating feature separating PACS solutions."

- Brad Levin, director of strategic marketing

Remote access/patient physician Web portal

- McKesson Medical Imaging: "Mobile computing is key for access to patient information anywhere, anytime, thus driving Web solutions and access through portals." -Gail McBride, director of marketing programs

- Realtime Image: "There is a growing emphasis on remote access for referring physicians and an emerging need for remote access for patients." -Zvi Eintracht, CEO

- DR Systems: The IHE PDI (portable data initiative) continues the trend to Web portals for referring physicians.

- Merge eFilm: Upcoming Fusion RIS/PACS product releases will be demonstrated at the RSNA meeting, including the Referring Practice Portal, which enables referring physicians to access reports and the associated images from the RIS/PACS via the Web.

- Fujifilm Medical Systems: "We find our clients increasingly leveraging the Web, either by using the Internet to securely and easily present exams for interpretation by an outside group or a virtual practice, or subscribing to Web-based interpretation services."

- Bob Cooke, executive director of marketing network systems

- Amicas: ThinView, a solution that provides referring physicians remote access to images and reports, will be highlighted in the company's RSNA booth. The Vision Series PACS e-mails referring physicians an encrypted link to images and reports following the electronic signature on the radiology report.

Disaster recovery and virus protection

- Kodak: "Kodak's Health Imaging Group proactively monitors, analyzes, and provides security updates based on Computer Emergency Response Center alerts, Microsoft security bulletins, and the DOD Information Assurance Vulnerability Alert."

- L. Jeffrey Markin, general manager of healthcare information systems and vice president

- McKesson Medical Imaging: Horizon Medical Imaging offers new features in disaster recovery, including offsite data warehouse recovery and 24-hour system operation in case of complete hardware destruction. For multisite locations, cross-site image replication, multi-MPN support, and enterprise storage integration are available.

- Dynamic Imaging: Product enhancements for the IntegradWeb PACS include fault-tolerant grid architecture that assures business continuity of multilocation PACS deployments in case of a WAN failure.

PET/CT fusion

eMED: Company representatives note the emergence of PET/CT fusion studies, which require PACS vendors to support the ability to fuse PET and CT images, along with advanced PET features such as the ability to measure standardized uptake values and adjust the blending of PET and CT images.

- McKesson Medical Imaging: Horizon Medical Imaging includes enhanced integrated tools for nuclear medicine, PET/fusion images, orthopedic templating, and 3D imaging.

- Merge eFilm: Among the features of the Fusion eFilm diagnostic workstation are a thumbnail viewer and integrated CT/PET image fusion.-MT