"Filmless" radiology network planned for Dallas; IBM wins $6.3 million VA contract.DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 1996--IBM announced today it has won a $6.3 million contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Affairs is a term of the business that deals with the relation between a government and its veteran communities, usually administered by the designated government agency. to establish a filmless radiology radiology, branch of medicine specializing in the use of X rays, gamma rays, radioactive isotopes, and other forms of radiation in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. department at the VA Medical Center in Dallas. This system enables healthcare professionals to review patient X-rays over a computer network and will eliminate the cost and inconvenience of traditional film X-rays. The Picture Archival and Communication System (PACS (Picture ArChiving System) A storage and management system for high-resolution images. Typically pertaining to the medical field, images such as X-rays, MRIs and CAT scans require a greater amount of storage than other industries. ) network acquires, stores and displays digital medical images that speed diagnosis; improve the quality of care; and, alleviate Alleviate To make something easier to be endured. Mentioned in: Kinesiology, Applied the expense of film production, handling and storage. The network also makes it possible to view images simultaneously in separate locations and eliminates complications resulting from mishandled, misfiled and lost films. Two new construction projects at the Dallas VA Medical Center provide the impetus Impetus is a stimulus or impulse, a moving force that sparks momentum. Impetus may also refer to:
Spinal cord injury is damage to the spinal cord that causes loss of sensation and motor control. Description Approximately 10,000 new spinal cord injuries (SCIs) occur each year in the United States. Center and the Clinical Addition Project have been designed by the VA to operate in a filmless environment. Currently, more than 400 in-patient in·pa·tient or in-pa·tient n. A patient who is admitted to a hospital or clinic for treatment that requires at least one overnight stay. and out-patient examinations are performed each day at the hospital, producing more than 1,000 X-rays that must be handled, reviewed and stored. "PACS will help make the Dallas VA Medical Center 'state-of-the-art' and will improve efficiency in delivering healthcare to our veterans," said Paul Fisch, administrative officer of Dallas' VA Medical Center Radiology Service. IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) is the prime contractor for the VA PACS installation, working with BRIT Systems of Dallas, the developer of the PACS application. IBM will provide integrated hardware, software, training, project management and support personnel. IBM also will acquire the VA PACS network components and integrate them into a single network-based solution using industry standards, such as the Digital Imaging Communications in Medicine, Version 3 (DICOM (medical, standard) DICOM - (From Digital Imaging and COmmunications in Medicine) A standard developed by ACR-NEMA (American College of Radiology - National Electrical Manufacturer's Association) for communications between medical imaging devices. ). The network is based on the asynchronous transfer mode See ATM. (communications) Asynchronous Transfer Mode - (ATM, or "fast packet") A method for the dynamic allocation of bandwidth using a fixed-size packet (called a cell). See also ATM Forum, Wideband ATM. ATM acronyms. Indiana acronyms. (ATM) standard and is designed to support high speeds and high bandwidth for quick access to large amounts of data. The network also is expandable, manageable and fault-tolerant. IBM network management tools provide the ability to monitor performance and quickly locate and fix network problems. When fully operational the VA PACS network will enable VA medical staff to process digital medical images from various sources and send them to the archive system. The archive system then distributes the patient images to viewing workstations. Additional clinical information is made available by integrating the VA PACS network with the VA's existing Hospital Information System (HIS). In this way, Dallas VA Medical Center staff will have extensive patient information displayed at a single console, allowing more effective and efficient patient care. The VA PACS network also enables VA medical personnel to retrieve and view patient medical images remotely using a portable teleradiology system. And, PACS provides a consultative feature that allows radiologists, primary care physicians and others to view the same image on separate and remote monitors, simultaneously. Other teaching tool features of the PACS application are projection systems and slide-makers. Among the major components of the system are Fuji Computed Radiography radiography: see X ray. (CR) systems, replacing conventional X-ray machines Noun 1. X-ray machine - an apparatus that provides a source of X rays apparatus, setup - equipment designed to serve a specific function fluoroscope, roentgenoscope - an X-ray machine that combines an X-ray source and a fluorescent screen to enable direct . Other components are viewers and image acquisition devices from BRIT Systems, DICOM interfaces from a variety of vendors, and an IBM archive system and network. To accommodate the vast number of medical images that must be stored for five years or more, IBM also will provide a highly available, high-performance image storage system to support the VA PACS network. This storage system will be based on the IBM RS/6000(a) open systems platform with high-performance IBM 7137 RAID systems for short-term storage and the IBM Optical Library for more than eight terabytes of long-term storage capacity. All these components will be integrated into a highly available network that is managed by the industry's leading availability software, IBM HACMP/6000(a). The PACS application and the existing VA HIS will be integrated tightly with the archiving and availability software to provide a high-performance, seamless network for users to capture, store, transmit, archive and retrieve patient images and improve the overall quality of healthcare delivery. -0- (a) Trademark or registered trademark of the International Business Machines Corporation. CONTACT: IBM Corporation Ken Croken, 301/803-2753 |
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