Dear PACS Insider,
Welcome to our final PACS newsletter of 2011 -- and we think we've saved the best until last!
A wealth of valuable information is always on offer at the RSNA meeting in Chicago, and last week's congress proved no exception. Irish researchers showed how introducing a PACS alert mechanism can aid communication over unexpected clinical findings on chest x-rays. They've found that new procedures can help ensure a more rapid response time from referring clinicians, and can facilitate comprehensive analysis of patient data and outcome. Read more at our PACS Digital Community, or by clicking here.
Most European hospitals with more than 250 beds now have PACS, but many smaller hospitals and imaging centers still lack the technology. While more than 7,400 European sites have PACS, another 3,350 are still without radiology PACS, writes market analyst Theo Ahadome. To read his article about the latest trends, click here.
It's time for PACS users to think more deeply about image data, according to Dr. Neelam Dugar, chair of the U.K. Royal College of Radiologists' Imaging Informatics Group. Can we keep the data forever? Is there any proven benefit of keeping data forever? In her latest column, she addresses these questions and has some practical advice on PACS storage. Get the story here.
As winter begins to bite across Europe, this is a great time of year to think about your 2012 travel plans. EuroPACS takes place in the wonderful Italian city of Pisa at the end of June, and will form part of the Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (CARS) congress. This is a perfect time of year to visit the region of Tuscany -- and to learn about PACS, of course! To find out more, click here.
France still lags behind when it comes to PACS implementation. Key decision-makers are abandoning a top-down strategy for building networks, and now favor successful regional programs. As part of our news coverage from les Journées Françaises de Radiologie (JFR), we covered the PACS and teleradiology sessions. Click here for contributing writer John Brosky's report, or click here for the French translation.
