On Call PACS for Radiology Department

The aim of this study to determine the different diagnostic image viewing used by Radio technologists while on-call, and to assess the opinions and preferences of radiology program directors regarding their use. An online survey was sent electronically to radiology technologist program directors via the Association of University technologist. Six radiology program directors and 3chief technologist completed the survey, yielding respond, 2 different Picture Archiving Communications Systems (PACS) were identified; GE (50 %), Philips (50 %), only 5 % of all respondents use a secondary Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine viewer for on-call studies. Perceptions of PACS functionality were generally neutral to weakly positive. Most respondents strongly agreed that it is important to have a single integrated PACS for viewing on-call studies and agreed that the PACS should be integrated into the Electronic Medical Records (EMR). The majority of respondents use their institutions PACS while on-call. The results show there is still a wide variety of PACS used by different institutions; however, GE, Phillips were some of the most prevalent. Most technologist surveyed have neutral to slightly positive perceptions about the functionality and ease of use of their PACS. Finally, while technologist agree that PACS should be integrated with EMR, only 50 % of respondents currently have this arrangement.