From the June 2016 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
They include:
• Supporting the interoperability of systems to help streamline and simplify the complex processes so that customers can efficiently and effectively manage core operations.
• Understanding and supporting the distinctive workflow needed in the highly complex imaging and content management departments. Customers need to look beyond the simple feature/functionality to know what is needed to be successful and provide systems that are flexible in capability and expand to support future growth.
• Investing in the future of health care, which has unique needs for workflow and data management. The PACS, VNA or ECM vendor should have a long and proven record in health care and be committed to the market.
PACS is so much more than just a radiology system today and the changes to it are significant. The use of 3-D printing and modeling in conjunction with high resolution CT imaging and advanced visualization software have allowed surgeons to do much better surgical planning than before, and even allows for the creation of extremely cost-effective prosthetics.
PACS are also having to last longer as well. While five years was the typical replacement cycle, now PACS must last seven years or longer, yet still be able to support software updates and upgrades without having to do major hardware refreshes. These can still be challenging, as for every item you typically “gain” with an upgrade you typically lose another one that you may have gotten used to using on a regular basis. Sadly, most end users usually don’t realize this until after the upgrade or update has been completed because the right questions weren’t asked and none of the information was volunteered by the vendor.
PACS has a lot of things still going for it and will for quite some time. While PACS is mostly a replacement market today, the add-ons and newer technologies keep it interesting and allow it to become an integral part in creating the utopian electronic health record (EHR) that is the goal of each facility.
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