From the January/February 2016 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

Smarro shared how this change has impacted his company’s approach to PACS, stating, “We used to deliver racks of servers but now they’re only interested in the software loaded on their VMware. That depends on the ability of the customer though. Some hospitals want their own VM that’s hosting everything. That can be problematic because you can’t hold a vendor accountable to the SLA (Service Level Agreement) if their system is intermixed with other systems. We are seeing some of the large institutions that have tried that and are now moving away from it. They want the PACS in its own infrastructure so the system doesn’t become overburdened and slow down PACS performance.”

When asked about what else was important, Smarro talked about how the Information Technology department is impacting the global design of PACS. “Scalability is a major issue, but not just scalability to include greater volumes of data. You need the ability to scale up in complexity as well, which is where interoperability also comes in.


With a well-designed VNA you can manage the data from other systems while leaving the other systems alone. In this case, the enterprise viewer sits on top of the VNA. You also want the VNA option for off-site disaster recovery to comply with HIPAA. Reliability is another key issue, as is responsive service. Hospitals today want support for multiple sites and multiple departments. They also want support beyond DICOM. Another important factor is ongoing product development and an upgrade path that gives you a way to upgrade to the latest version without the pain of a forklift upgrade.”

Sectra’s Bjornemo agrees with this approach as well. “A lot of hospitals have invested in VNAs over the past few years, but outside of consolidating data to the IT side of the house there really wasn’t as much clinical benefit. We need to look closer at the clinical side of IT as well as radiology, and how it is leveraged by end users. EMR integration is driving clinical workflows and how they all work together is critical. Stability, performance, resilience, capability, workflow efficiency, support services, are all items that are crucial to being looked at more closely.”

Agfa’s Reznik keeps it simpler. “Number one is interoperability, whether it’s into the EMR or other aspects of the imaging space. It can’t be a departmental silo anymore — those days are long over.” There was an emphasis on health IT and image sharing at last year’s RSNA show as well. Some people suggested it’s a sign that HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) is becoming a more industry-relevant event. Indeed, at last year’s HIMSS annual meeting in Orlando there was a huge focus on VNAs, interoperability solutions and similar items.

January/February 2016 Magazine

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