الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Teleradiology is a way for transmitting radiological data in digital form. It enables interactive connection between doctors and patients, providing long-distant consultations. Data transmitted by teleradiology include medicine, radiology, static images, moving images, complete medical records, etc. Teleradiology become a global service with almost unlimited possibilities. The realization of this concept of teleradiology includes choosing of appropriate hardware and software and the use of recent radiological equipment. Teleradiology nowadays is the future of radiology (Rade Babić et al., 2012). Imaging informatics is a subspecialty of radiology that study of how information about medical images is transmitted within radiology department and throughout the hospital or outside it. For Effective use of PACS, radiologists should be familiar with the basic technologic concepts behind workstation displays, computer networking, data storage, and distribution of images. Any PACS will serve the radiologist better if it is supplemented with software that is designed to meet specific workflow needs (Branstetter BF. 2007). PACSs are depends on digital communication, display, and information technologies, which have revolutionized the practice of radiology, and the entire clinical practice in medicine during the past decade (Brent J. Liu and H.K. Huang 2020). To summarize the relative disadvantages of teleradiology are; costs of installing, maintenance, technical points, legal aspects of a teleradiology system, medical license and certified practitioners in different countries, training tele-radiologist is required, and limited ways of communication with clinicians. To improve teleradiology, many prefer to decrease teleradiology cost, train more Radiologists and network experts on teleradiology systems, reduce the number of teleradiology systems breakdowns, start accreditation programs for teleradiology globally, provide more access for previous studies and patients’ histories, and allow more communication between tele-radiologists and other clinicians for better understanding. Teleradiology is a huge problem-solver, but many issues need to be solved first to allow teleradiology higher impact on patients’ lives worldwide (Alahmari 2019). Teleradiology isn’t the only solution to the COVID-19 crisis, but it can be an important step as it becomes more common throughout our health care systems (D. Chopra 2020). PACS & teleradiology is not the final target in advancement of medical imaging & informatics field. The automated analysis of medical images has spread rapidly and serving more in medical researchers. Radiologists are the most physicians to be directly affected by advances in computer technology. Deep learning, big data , machine learning , Computer aided diagnosis & artificial intelgence are the next targets beyond the advancement of PACS & Teleradiology. The Ministries of Health, in many countries in the middle east such as KSA according to the 2030 Vision, has placed teleradiology in its first Priorities (Alshamrani K. M. et al, 2021). In brief, the points of Weakness noticed in our study of Implementation of PACS in Sohag University Hospital were: Inability of auto sends of cases on PACS, so Auto routing is recommended. Inability of system to identify who’s see the cases , it can only explain if the cases are seen or not Number of reported cases on the PACS was non conclusive, as much more cases were already reported but not on our PACS. Number of verified cases on our PACS was much more non conclusive indicator of the real utilization of our PACS. Static IP service loss was equal to total loss of the system. The strength points in our study of Implementation of PACS in Sohag University Hospital were: Long duration of the study (18 Months) Continuous work of PACS system all over the duration of study The study researcher himself (me) is the main admin of our PACS Continuous contact with PACS maintenance team all over the duration of the research. PACS is connected & serving the majority of modalities in our department (CR, CT & MRI) Total number of sent cases on PACS during the research was conclusive (> 57000 case) The economic value of using our PACS was conclusive (Saving > 1.5 million EGP) The recorded training sessions of using PACS by me, published on YouTube for easier use & more acceptance of the system Repeated updating of review of Literature according to the emerging situations (as Covid 19 ) & explaining role of PACS in it Server Redundancy was a real protective measure for PACS cases data up till now. The overall increased utilization of our PACS was the trend although of some fluctuation as explained. CONCLUSION - Our study has concluded that PACS system in sohag university hospital give an important services for radiology department, emergency cases, orthopedic cases CR scans, and economic roles. Archiving of data for teaching & research was other important implementation but these benefits are mainly depending on good use and maintenance. PACS is the golden role of diagnostic aspects for emergency cases. The total benefits of PACS are depending mainly on the human factor in guiding, maintaining & improving its functions & components. - Our study proved that PACS is saving time, lives, efforts & money. Finally, our study conclude that PACS system has a great benefits as explained and may be more but when human factor use & maintain it probably, while it can lose most of its value, or completely destroyed if they did not consider this. |