Dear PACS Insider,
For assessing the performance of medical display monitors, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine's TG-18 test patterns is a good choice that's used worldwide. It's important to be aware of the method's limitations, however, according to researchers from Portugal.
In a recent study, a team from the University of Algarve in Portugal encountered some issues while testing more than 40 diagnostic monitors. For example, hospitals that don't have medical physicists to perform the tests may find some of the qualitative parameters challenging to score. What else did the researchers find? Click here for the details.
The International Organization for Standardization 9001 standard is employed in many industries worldwide for quality management. The latest 2015 edition added elements that make the standard much better suited to ensuring high-quality teleradiology services than previous versions, according to German and Austrian researchers. They found the standard's new emphasis on addressing risk goes a lot further toward preventing quality problems in teleradiology services. You can access the article in the PACS Community or by clicking here.
Companies that offer vendor-neutral archives are forging ahead with a vision of a paperless U.K. National Health Service, and these firms can learn a lot from what made PACS a global success, according to AuntMinnieEurope.com contributing writer Dr. Neelam Dugar. In the early days of PACS, broad adoption of the DICOM standard was critical for driving the conversion to filmless environments. Now, compliance with the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise cross-enterprise document sharing model can play the same role in facilitating paperless operations, according to Dr. Dugar. Click here to access her latest column.
Some crucial PACS lessons were learned in the aftermath of the healthcare response to the Paris bombings in November. Staff writer Frances Rylands-Monk has our coverage, which you can access by clicking here.
If you have any tips or suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered in the PACS Community, please feel free to drop me a line.
