The benefits of hospital-wide picture archiving and communication systems: a survey of clinical users of radiology services.

This paper describes one element of a broad evaluation of a hospital-wide picture archiving and communication system (PACS): an assessment of the views of users of the radiology service, their major causes of dissatisfaction with the service, the incidence of image unavailability, and the consequences of images being unavailable. The principal research design was a "before and after" comparison at Hammersmith Hospital, as the hospital site introducing PACS. Several other hospitals were included in this survey, for comparison. Questionnaires were distributed several times before PACS was operational at Hammersmith, and on one occasion after. The overall response rate was 54%. The main pre-PACS radiology-related problem areas were: the non-availability of images, the non-availability of written reports when clinically required, and the time devoted by junior staff to image searching. PACS greatly reduced the perceived problem of image non-availability. But Hammersmith's problems with the availability of radiological reports still remained when PACS was operational. The time junior doctors spent in image-searching was dramatically reduced by the introduction of PACS.

Integrated radiologic information system: a radiology multimedia communication system.

A multimedia radiologic communication system has been developed that achieves the system design goal of providing a clinical communication service that is an efficient improvement over present methods of communication. The system allows users to access, through a workstation, digitized radiographic images, voice reports, and other patient data. Physicians can consult with each other while simultaneously accessing this information through a shared visual workspace, even though they are in different places. The system was designed by a multidisciplinary team including radiologists, clinicians, engineers, user-interface specialists, and psychologists from hospital, university, and research settings in an effort to maximize system performance and clinical utility.

Film loan policies of radiology departments.

Last year, the AHRA Southern Region Statistical Resource Committee surveyed its members about their departments' film loan policies. This article presents the results of that survey, providing information on such topics as lending original films, charging for copies, and protecting against liability. While there doesn't seem to be a standard approach to releasing films, survey findings suggest that liability issues and cost factors are of great concern in determining which policy should be adopted.

Double film radiography.

There is a viable need for physicians to have portable radiography results in acute patient care areas as soon as possible. In the following procedure, a double-loaded cassette can produce films of equal density and contrast. It can provide the physician with a duplicate film of the examination within minutes of being taken.