Web-Based Cardiology PACS Provides Effective Access, Reporting for Cardiology Procedures

A new web-based cardiology picture archival and communication system (PACS) offers a single integrated platform for diagnosis, image review, and reporting for echocardiography, cardiac catheterization, and nuclear cardiology procedures as well as electrocardiogram (ECG) management.

The system was developed by Carestream Health, Inc. (Rochester, NY, USA), and will be available by the end of September 2009. The cardiology PACS equips providers to consolidate isolated cardiac lab systems into a centralized solution to achieve both greater efficiency and lower costs. The Cardiology PACS client also enables productive reading of cardiology data from any networked personal computer (PC). In addition, clinicians benefit from convenient and productive review of multiple cardiac studies and results--along with easy access to prior exams.

The PACS integrates with the company's radiology PACS, allowing healthcare providers to use the same workstation for diagnostic reading and clinical review of cardiology and radiology studies. "Most cardiology services providers are hampered by the need for physicians to log onto multiple systems to review patient images and data, and accessing prior exams from DVD or tape libraries is time-consuming and inefficient. These factors can lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment,” said Diana L. Nole, president, Digital Medical Solutions, Carestream Health. ”Our new cardiology PACS provides rapid access to images, data, and reports for clinicians at any location, thus helping improve the workflow and enhancing the decision-making process.”

The new cardiology PACS offers: (1) Structured-reporting templates for all cardiovascular applications (cath, echo, vascular, and nuclear) with point-and-click access to predefined statements along with digital signatures. Formatting is user-customizable and reports can be distributed using HL7 (Health Level 7), email, automatic print, or fax transmissions. (2) Comprehensive measurement tools for echocardiography applications, including the ability to import measurements taken at the modality. The platform also delivers specialized echocardiography features, including automatic quad screen display for stress echo exams, automatic Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) calibration, and the ability to view imported exams and documents from third-party systems. (3) An ECG management solution that includes a timesaving worklist and the ability to integrate to multi-vendor ECG carts. (4) Catheterization reporting tools such as coronary tree annotations for stenosis, stent and graft locations to eliminate dictation and provide a single tool for reporting of echo, cardiac cath, and nuclear cardiology. (5) Lastly, nuclear cardiology features, including Web-based gated single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) wall motion review, a three-dimensional (3D) cine and localizer tool, as well as viewing and reporting tools.

If Carestream Health's cardiology PACS is integrated with the company's radiology PACS, clinicians on any PC or workstation gain access to native 3D functionality for cardiac analysis, coronary analysis, calcium scoring, and other specialized cardiac applications.

Carestream Health also offers a flexible information management platform that can manage DICOM and non-DICOM information captured by cardiology, radiology, and a variety of other patient imaging and information systems. With this platform, hospitals and cardiology practices can consolidate data management throughout the enterprise to reduce the high costs associated with separate archiving systems. This management platform also simplifies business continuity and disaster recovery planning.

Carestream Health is a worldwide provider of dental and medical imaging systems and healthcare information technology (IT) solutions; molecular imaging systems for the life science research and drug discovery/development market segments; and X-ray film and digital X-ray products for the nondestructive testing market.

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