The Image Archiving and Communication System (PACS) is an integral part of the smooth, timely and quality delivery of medical services to every medical center today. Not only are they integral, but they are also important for the clinical and business aspects of radiological practice, as we know it. However, PACS has long encountered difficulties in providing this digital imaging with support for diagnostic methods such as X-ray, ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and teleradiology. The main problem has always been the availability of sufficient bandwidth (load and speed) ..... at a reasonable price ..... to support the growing demand for fast, easy access via the Internet from medical professionals. As medical images become more and more digital ... with improved bandwidth, communication will be faster and easier, and more difficult studies can be transferred in less time and with high quality.
Internal (owned by) PACS uses a common infrastructure for all digital imaging methods and provides storage and archiving of images .... with revocation if necessary .... for the entire medical facility or campus. By creating a distribution system through a network, the PACS center can provide ready access to images to the nearest radiology department, as well as the entire spectrum of doctors and specialists, especially surgeons and medical doctors. In order to provide high-level functionality, the required tool is faced with an intense increase in the bandwidth of the supported modalities.
Even an application provider company (ASP) that hosts applications, manages them and accesses images from centralized management is not protected against bandwidth problems. ASP providers allow an institution to transfer the infrastructure, management, support and maintenance of an information technology infrastructure. As defined by the ASP industry consortium, ASP is designed to "deliver and manage applications and computer services from remote data centers to multiple users via the Internet or to a private network." this is the problem ... the need for high bandwidth, provided for the most part with different total differences on demand.
PACS manufacturers have developed many solutions to solve bandwidth problems. These are compressed images, supported standard network interfaces and protocols, such as Ethernet and TCP / IP, and high-capacity deployed local area networks (LANs) for linking hospitals or physicians in environmental conditions. But how do they handle throughput when facilities are separated by dozens or hundreds of miles, especially since images are becoming more complex and complex?
Some PACS providers rely on communications infrastructure in the area, which depends on the bandwidth available at the local telephone company and the price the patient is willing to pay, said Frederick Wagner, PACS manager for Toshiba. Other PACS providers offer streaming technologies that transfer high-quality real-time images across any bandwidth, including telephone lines and LANs across the enterprise.
Another contributing solution is a technology called Pixels-on-Demand in real time. This technology speeds up processing by capturing images from archives or the PACS repository, without waiting for preprocessing, immediately transfers data from selected areas of interest, and first provides the most visually important image functions for the viewer.
The fundamental solution to the bandwidth problem goes beyond even system technologies, network interfaces, image compression, and infrastructure protocols. It is to provide adequate bandwidth (circuits) .... at a reasonable price .... through the use of fiber-optic infrastructure available through the United States. Providing direct fiber-optic communication inside or between hospitals and remote data centers is the most economical use of bandwidth. Using optical bandwidth (Sonet Ring) (often OC3 or OC48) or Gigabit Ethernet allows the medical facility to optimize the local area network (LAN). ASPs can scale up the service of their application service provider (ASP) in small image processing centers, as well as in large, extensive healthcare systems.
To find a provider of fiber-optic infrastructure that can provide the right bandwidth solution for your medical visualization application ..... I highly recommend you take advantage of the free advice available from an independent firewall, such as DS3-Bandwidth.com.
