CT image review will be greatly enhanced by the adoption of next-generation PACS technology, according to Eliot Siegel, a professor of diagnostic radiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
During a talk at the International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT in Washington, D.C., Siegel said that the greater integration of information systems will provide radiologists and technologists with, for example, access to a patient's imaging and medical records, as well as advanced clinical decision support systems, AuntMinnie.com reported.
Seigel also pointed out an increasing trend toward vendor neutral archives where an archive will be able to support multiple information systems and "may also be able to support not only your PACS images, but also be able to store images from your modalities in the future."
He added that there will be increased utilization of the cloud, either through storing images on the internet or through local clouds.
Earlier this year, Herman Oosterwijk, president of OTech, a healthcare imaging and IT company, said that while outsourcing image storage could make sense for some institutions, those that have privacy and security concerns should consider creating their own local clouds.
The automated capture of data from CT images will expand over the next decade, he added. "Every normal CT pulmonary angiogram that we do, for example, that gets reported out as essentially negative contains an incredible wealth of data that we're not reporting in any way," Oosterwijk said.
This data could include liver and lung texture, or the size of organs such as the lung, spleen or kidney, or bone mineral density, compression fractures and prostate size.
To learn more:
- see the article in AuntMinnie.com