Authors: Anh H T Le Brent Liu H K Huang
Publish Date: 2009/04/15
Volume: 4, Issue: 4, Pages: 317-329
Abstract
Picture Archiving and Communication System PACS is a mature technology in health care delivery for daily clinical imaging service and data management Computeraided detection and diagnosis CAD utilizes computer methods to obtain quantitative measurements from medical images and clinical information to assist clinicians to assess a patient’s clinical state more objectively CAD needs image input and related information from PACS to improve its accuracy and PACS benefits from CAD results online and available at the PACS workstation as a second reader to assist physicians in the decision making process Currently these two technologies remain as two separate independent systems with only minimal system integration This paper describes a universal method to integrate CAD results with PACS in its daily clinical environmentThe method is based on Health Level 7 HL7 and Digital imaging and communications in medicine DICOM standards and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise IHE workflow profiles In addition the integration method is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act HIPAA compliantThe paper presents 1 the clinical value and advantages of integrating CAD results in a PACS environment 2 DICOM Structured Reporting formats and some important IHE workflow profiles utilized in the system integration 3 the methodology using the CAD–PACS integration toolkit and 4 clinical examples with stepbystep workflows of this integration
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