Middle East Healthcare News » DICOM

EHR, PACS & Related Standards Training Seminar & Workshop

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:57:17 +0000

ICT for Health along with its US partners OTech Imaging is organizing its 4th PACS seminar in the Middle East with a special emphasis on EHR implementation & strategies, particularly the open source Electronic Health Record WorldVista, developed by VA. Course is delivered by industry leaders from US who carry over 25 years of experience in PACS related training and consulting.

Participants will get a thorough understanding of all the aspects of an Electronic Health Record, PACS system, the typical PACS System Administrator’s job and the DICOM standard. Our seminars are limited with regard to the attendance and is very interactive with a great deal of hands-on, especially during the last day.

Detailed Learning Objectives:

Participants will understand the basic components of Electronic Health Record, Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), the associated clinical workflow, and the technical aspects to exchange the image and information management between digital modalities, PACS and Radiology Information Systems (RIS) using DICOM. This will allow the participants to assist in:

Planning, preparing and supporting the implementation of a comprehensive Electronic Health Record (EHR)
Preserving the image and information integrity, including image quality.
Managing the installation and/or enhancements of a PACS system.
Continuously improving the system efficiency and integrity.
Assisting PACS and EHR users such as physicians and technologists through training and support.
Troubleshooting of connectivity, image quality and data integrity issues.

For additional information:

Please contact us at info@ictforhealth.com
OR
call +2010-8523040

About ICT for Health ICT for Health is pioneer in healthcare technology training and consulting in the Middle East. ICTFH provides a variety of solutions and services to the healthcare facilities in the Middle East and US. Some of our solutions and services include EHR Strategy & Planning, Radiology Transcription, teleradiology and Dictation Management System.

Contact Information:

Zaheer Abbas Malik
ICT FOR HEALTH 53, Ahmed Qasim Goda Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt
www.ictforhealth.com
zaheer@ictforhealth.com

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PACS Seminar in Cairo by ICT for Health ends

admin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:04:33 +0000

Third bi-annual PACS | DICOM | HL7 Seminar, organized by leading healthcare organization in the Middle East, ICT for Health, ends on Thursday Nov, 5, 2009. The seminar was a blend of radiology professionals, CEOs, Decision Makers, including delegates from Aspetar Hospital Qatar, King Fahad Hospital Saudi Arabia, ICC Group Saudi Arabia, Senior officials from Ministry of Health (MOH) Saudi Arabia & CEOs of different reputed healthcare organizations.

In a small ceremony held in Safir Hotel, Mr. Abbas, the CEO of ICT for Health distributed certificates of participation and appreciation to the participating delegates. He also added in his closing remarks the importance of healthcare technology training in the Middle East. Most of the healthcare organizations are spending millions of dollars annually on upgrading hospitals systems, RIS/HIS/PACS, modalities and other equipment but they are overlooking the importance of staff training to handle this digital revolution in healthcare industry. The participants appreciated very much the efforts put by Mr. Herman Oosterwijk, President OTech, who is considered authority on PACS subject and who delivered the course material. ICT for Health announced tentatively its upcoming seminar in Kuwait including “Policies & procedures” for PACS system.

For additional information: Please contact us at info@ictforhealth.com or call +2010-8523040

About ICT for Health

ICT for Health is pioneer in Diagnostic Imaging Training and Consulting in the Middle East. ICT for Health provides a variety of solutions and services to the healthcare facilities in the Middle East and US. Some of the solutions include PACS / RIS/ HIS/ medical transcription, teleradiology and Dictation Management System etc.

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An Easy Explanation of DICOM

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:22:11 +0000

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is a clinical messaging syntax used to exchange medical images between medical equipment and information systems. The DICOM standard was created by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) to aid in the distribution, storage, and viewing of medical images, such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans and ultrasound. DICOM enables the integration of scanners, servers, workstations, printers, and network hardware from multiple manufacturers into a picture archiving and communication system (PACS).

A practical example is the transmission of x-ray images to an electronic health record (EHR). The ability of the sender and the receiver to mutually use the DICOM standard allows this transmission to succeed.

The different devices come with DICOM conformance statements that clearly state the DICOM classes they support. DICOM models the image acquisition process and information objects related to imaging, and it specifies how the image data, the metadata, and related objects are represented in a binary format.

DICOM has been the global standard for medical image information since the 1980s. It is pervasive throughout the medical imaging community, and nearly every medical imaging device supports some aspect of the standard. DICOM has been widely adopted by hospitals and is making inroads in smaller applications like dentists’ and doctors’ offices.
DICOM is an independent, international standards development organization administered by NEMA’s Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance. More information on DICOM can be found on the NEMA Web site.

Despite its pervasiveness, size, and complexity, DICOM lacks a reference information model of the imaging domain. A reference information model is a formal description of a domain that enables users to share consistent meaning and establish semantic interoperability beyond a local context.

Researchers Zhau and Lee developed a methodology to transform programmatically structured reporting (SR) templates defined by the DICOM standard into an XML schema representation to promote common formats for specific reporting applications or domains.

Some current research based on DICOM has focused on designing structured reporting modules corresponding to the specifications from the Content Mapping Resource section of the DICOM standard, which defines the structure of the DICOM medical reports and their composing elements: coded concepts, context groups, and templates.

An information model of imaging based on DICOM is needed to enable the community to create intelligent, imaging-based applications that are interoperable. The Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research is developing the DICOM Ontology (DO), an ontology that will be a single common reference information model for the imaging domain. The DO will be analogous to the Gene Ontology (GO) and serve a role in radiology similar to that which GO serves in biology. The DO will unify and make explicit all the key entities and relations in DICOM in a user friendly and machine-processable format.

The DO will ultimately become a reference ontology–one that comprehensively represents knowledge about the medical imaging domain independent from specific objectives or applications, guided by a theory of the imaging domain and by robust ontology design principles that encourage reuse.

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DICOM Image Viewer Improves Office Workflow

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:10:48 +0000

One of the best pieces of hardware you can add to your office is a DICOM web viewer. This is used in conjunction with PACS software, or as part of a RIS/PACS system, and the dicom viewer allows you to see, send and receive digital medical images on your screen, as well as archive them. Having a fleet of DICOM viewers throughout your medical facility will help to improve workflow tremendously.

Among the best aspects of using a DICOM web viewer is how it provides the immediate nature of the Internet at your fingertips. The dicom reader allows you to see medical digital images, which can include multi-slice CT images, ultrasounds, mammograms, MRIs, x-rays, dental images, veterinary images and others, from any DICOM modality instantly when you retrieve them from your digital archive, or receive them over a secure online transmission line. There is no more waiting for patient images to be mailed or delivered to your office, because that turnaround time has been eliminated through the use of DICOM viewers and digital imaging.

Consultation and collaboration in real time are much more easily possible when all medical personnel involved in a patient’s care each utilize a dicom viewer. The use of digital imaging and a DICOM viewer leads to a much improved turnaround time on patient diagnoses, which also improves patient care.

Moreover, documents can be read on a dicom reader. This speeds up retrieval times, because you can bring up both patient digital images as well as records on your DICOM web viewer. By using a dicom reader, you also have immediate access to important information including the date the images were taken and where, along with patient identification, thus reducing the chances of mixing up patient records tremendously.

In order to meet HIPPA standards, patient medical images must be stored for seven to ten years. With hard copy images, this means a lot of money spent on storage space and personnel for filing, retrieval and maintenance of those files. Now, you can archive thousands of patient images in a server that will take up less space than your desk, and retrieve any image you want immediately to view on your DICOM web viewer.

Offsite archiving is also much easier and less costly to accomplish when using PACS software with a DICOM reader. For all of these reasons, your office will experience a more effective workflow when you utilize the power of a DICOM web viewer.

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Efilm PACS Better Medical Imaging

ICTFH — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:47:48 +0000

Efilm PACS (Picture Archive and Communication Systems) are made possible by eFilm Workstation , which is the proprietary brand name of the specific software used in DICOM workstations. The advantage here is that no specialized equipment is necessary; eFilm Workstation software can turn any high-powered personal computer with a high-resolution monitor into an eFilm PACS.

DICOM, as you are probably aware, is not only the name of a company but a protocol that enables digital medical imagery to be viewed across computer platforms over any network, be it local or over the World Wide Web. EFilm Workstation is compliant with this protocol and as a result has become the most widely-used medical software imaging application on earth. This application is running on DICOM workstations at tens of thousands health care facilities worldwide.

The advantages to DICOM viewers operating with eFilm Workstation are many. As mentioned above, these DICOM viewers allow the display of medical images made with virtually any standard modality to anyone who has authorized access, anywhere in the world. However, these capabilities go even farther with DICOM Workstations.

Archival storage and transmission of medical images has traditionally been cumbersome; as regulations often require that such images be stored for specific amounts of time often several years a medical archive could in the old days take up rooms of space in folders that had to be searched by hand.
DICOM Workstations allow clinic personnel to archive medical images digitally on a server, a DVD or a portable drive. In addition, such images can be placed into a single digital archive that includes other patient records, including that all-important insurance and payment information and of course, full health histories. This saves time for both administrative staff and patients, as well as overhead costs.

Efilm PACS are perhaps one of the most significant innovations in medicine since the invention of x-ray well over a century ago. Until relatively recently, the costs associated with such technology were prohibitive; only major university medical centers and upscale private hospitals could afford such systems. However, as the cost of PC-based technology has fallen DICOM viewers have made digital imaging and archiving more widely available than ever. If your clinic or practice has not yet digitized its records and imaging system, take time to learn more about how eFilm PACS can help in the improved delivery of patient care at lower costs than ever before in medical history.

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Dicom PACS Help Your Medical Office Run More Smoothly

ICTFH — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:11:36 +0000

Dicom pacs is the wave of the future at medical offices and hospitals of all sizes and specialties. An efilm workstation, along with a dicom viewer, allows your medical team to work more efficiently and enables you to provide better care for your patients.

A dicom pacs, or picture archiving and communications system, does a lot of the work that was once done tediously by hand instead by a computer. A pacs system utilizes the speed and maneuverability of the Internet to make life in the medical office much easier for everyone. You can take digital images and enhance them with an efilm workstation. You can archive the images, view them on your dicom viewer, and distribute them to authorized diagnosticians regardless of their locale as long as they have Internet access. Dicom pacs is also versatile. You can look at ultrasounds, MRIs, CT scans, mammograms, and x-rays of all types. All types of medical facilities can use dicom pacs, including dental, veterinary, mammography, radiology and chiropractic clinics. An efilm workstation utilizing dicom pacs offers storage and retrieval capabilities that were very costly in the past but now are much more cost effective by going digital. Because you are working online, you can send images to your colleagues down the hall in your office or around the world in the same amount of time. In times past, the physical storage of digital images was costly and burdensome, requiring a great deal of space and hours of physical maintenance. Now storage and retrieval can be done with the click of a mouse with dicom viewers.

Digital images can be downloaded to CDs for compact storage. Backing up digital images is also easier; they can be stored on a server both onsite as well as offsite, allowing you to keep a copy of all your records in a safe place should disaster strike at the office, and the records there are damaged by fire or water. A dicom viewer can be connected to a printer. This allows you to print images when there are times that you need a hard copy. A dicom viewers also offers other features impossible with film images. You can use the dicom viewer equipped with pacs to allow you to crop, rotate, or zoom in on a particular spot on the image. You can adjust the brightness or contrast easily. These types of adjustments can mean the difference between accurate and faulty diagnoses, so dicom pacs gives you a sharper image for more accurate diagnoses. Using pacs makes imaging, storing, retrieval and distribution easier for all medical personnel at your clinic.

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The History of Picture Archival and Communication System (PACS)

ICTFH — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:01:42 +0000

The concept of a PACS was first discusssed in the early 1980s. While no one individual can be credited with the full development of PACS, this article in Imaging Economics describes some of the contributions of early leaders in PACS development:

“Any image, anytime, anywhere—that’s the mantra,” says Reuben Mezrich, MD, PhD, describing the capability of the modern PACS (picture archiving and communications system). “But none of this could have happened without DICOM (digital imaging and communication in medicine).

“If you could give a Nobel Prize for DICOM, that would be a good thing,” adds Mezrich, professor of radiology and chairman of the radiology department at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.

DICOM is a meticulously developed set of standards that allow systems to interface. It specifies how devices built in conformance with the standards react to commands and data being exchanged. DICOM, for instance, lets a CT scanner made by one manufacturer, an MRI scanner made by a second company, and an ultrasound machine made by a third company all communicate with the same PACS. It is because of DICOM that images from all three modalities, and others as well, can be displayed and interpreted at the same PACS workstation. The images can all be sent to the same PACS archive. DICOM is the computer standard that lets a PACS do its work.

If, as Mezrich suggests, a prize were given for DICOM, the recipient would most likely be Steven C. Horii, MD, who is now a professor of radiology and clinical director of medical informatics at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. By informal acclaim from his peers, Horii is credited with being the DICOM point man. He is cited for putting in the long hours and the blood, sweat, and perseverance that were necessary to DICOM’s creation.

As with the development of any new standard, many people from many different backgrounds were involved to help create PACS and DICOM and secure their interoperability with other systems, which was the key to the success of the standard.

Picture Archival and Communication System (PACS) And Radiology

Almost all modern radiology services now use some kind of PACS system to manage their data and communicate with other services. The four basic components of PACS are:

Imaging Modality – CT, MRI, X-ray
Secure Network – to transmit data, typically over a VPN or SSL connection
Workstations – to view and manipulate images
Archives – to store and retrieve images

The most common format used on PACS is DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine). Although the format is widely used, it is not a strictly defined format. Vendors have the ability to define their own metadata tags for new features unique to their own systems. While this gives DICOM flexibility, it limits interoperability, as legacy viewers are unable to interpret novel metadata tags. Another issue for PACS is the integration of full field digital mammography (FFDM) into existing PACS systems versus the non-integrated solution of buying separate mini PACS workstations for digital mammography.

Regardless, PACS is key to the functioning of a modern filmless radiology department. Beyond simply proving image archival and display, a PACS must be able communicate with other hospital information systems, such as the hospital information server (typically where the full patient’s EMR and biodata is stored) as well as the radiology information server (RIS).

The future of radiology is dependent on the continual development of PACS as a standard and as a tool that lets radiologists communicate their findings to their own colleagues, to other specialties, and ultimately to patients themselves.

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PACS Admin Seminar

admin — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 08:58:40 +0000

After a series of successful seminars in Dubai & Egypt, ICT for Health along with its US partners OTech Imaging is organizing another PACS Admin Seminar in Egypt from Nov 2- Nov 5, 2009. The course is equally good for healthcare student to healthcare decision makers, PACS Admins, Health Ministries, CTOs, CIOs of the hospitals, Radiology departments, radiographic technicians, PACS Vendors etc.

About the Workshop: The workshop is a typical example of blended learning because it uses books, self-paced CD’s as well as face-to-face training. You will get a thorough understanding of all the aspects of a typical PACS System Administrator’s job. In addition, one gains the technical background that allows one to do his or her job in a knowledgeable manner. Our seminars are limited with regard to the attendance and is very interactive with a great deal of hands-on throughout the week.

Detailed Learning Objectives: Participants will understand the basic components of a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), the associated clinical workflow, and the technical aspects to exchange the image and information management information between digital modalities, PACS and Radiology Information Systems (RIS). This will allow the participants to perform PACS System Administration duties which include:

Preserving the image and information integrity, including image quality.
Managing the installation and/or enhancements of a PACS system.
Continuously improving the system efficiency and integrity.
Assisting PACS users such as physicians and technologists through training and support.
Troubleshooting of connectivity, image quality and data integrity issues.

Schedule: “PACS Admin Workshop”. Following is detail of each seminar:

PACS Admin Training Course And Workshop | 02 – 05 November 2009

To Register Online Today and get discounted price, please click here

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All About DICOM

ICTFH — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:23:39 +0000

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is a standard for handling, storing, printing, and transmitting information in medical imaging. It includes a file format definition and a network communications protocol. DICOM files can be exchanged between two entities with the capacity of receiving images and data of patients in DICOM format. The communication protocol is an application protocol that uses TCP/IP to communicate between systems).

File format

DICOM files have a header with standardized and free fields as well as a body with the image itself. DICOM tags, located in the header of the DICOM file, permit to place the image in context with correct patient identification data.

DICOM services

As communication standard, DICOM defines a wide set of services, most of which imply the transmission of data over the net.

DICOM Store
DICOM Storage commitment
DICOM Query/Retrieve
DICOM Worklist
DICOM Print
Modality performed procedure step

DICOM and medical image integration

Theoretically, the DICOM standard permits to solve the majority of problems that arise when dealing with the integration of medical image devices and systems. However, most DICOM device manufacturers do not implement a large number of services foreseen in the standard. For example, a device may perform a DICOM Print but might not be able to carry out other actions such as recovering certain images (DICOM Query & Retrieve) or a list of the patients appointed for that day and device (DICOM Worklist), which makes very difficult the integration of devices and systems in a transparent way for the user.

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