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Where do vendors believe PACS is heading?

February 08, 2016
Health IT
From the January/February 2016 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

By Michael J. Cannavo, "The PACSman"

At RSNA 2015, hospital decision-makers walked the exhibit hall show floor trying to figure out exactly where PACS fits in their long-range strategic plans. Does it remain as it is today, primarily as a standalone radiology system, does it join other clinical imaging systems like cardiology to become an Integrated imaging Solution (IIS) or does it become a part of an enterprise-wide electronic health record (EHR)? The answer, not surprisingly, is all of the above.

There are a host of variables that make up the role PACS plays in an organization. Ultimately PACS will play a major role in an integrated EHR as well, but when depends on things like the hospital size, budget and available resources to assist with the connectivity. David Smarro, CEO of INFINITT North America, agrees with this assessment. “Smaller hospitals are still pretty departmentalized, so it will take a while for Enterprise Imaging (EI) to be embraced by these entities.

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In general, they don’t have the budget or the infrastructure for enterprise imaging solutions right now. In the larger hospital market, the enterprise component is mainly the archiving and the access/distribution of images, and the integration with the EMR and Health Information Exchanges (HIEs). These larger facilities are moving to consolidate their archives and reduce the number of vendors they have to work with."

He continued, “The industry is moving to an enterprise solution, in that we are moving away from siloed architectures, but that will take time. On the viewer side, the radiologists will not be giving up their PACS or the deep functionality that has been developed to meet their reading/diagnostic requirements. The cardiology department will not be willing to give up their PACS either, and the workflow gains they have won by consolidating their modalities into a single viewing and reporting environment.”

Several industry insiders agreed with Smarro’s overall view, yet took a slightly different approach. “The starting point is really your definition of enterprise PACS. The marketplace is moving toward enterprise imaging but is still focused on radiology imaging. It’s more of an evolution than replacing PACS,” said Mats Björnemo, vice president of product management at Sectra Imaging IT Solutions AB. “Enterprise imaging is becoming an important component of what end users see and want to develop. It’s not just about radiology anymore, but an integrated part of the entire enterprise. Radiology is no longer considered an island with the transition to valuebased radiology.

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