Abstract
During the past 35 years, ultrasound and nuclear medicine were introduced into
clinical medicine, computed tomography (CT) revolutionized diagnostic
procedures and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) emerged, bringing new
diagnostic information at the cellular level. X-ray morphed from analog films
to digital, and virtually all medical images became "soft" files on the
electronic networks. As imaging departments in healthcare facilities have
migrated from film to digital, the display and storage systems have had to
migrate too. These new digital imaging storage and display systems are called
picture archiving and communication systems (PACS). Most PACSs handle images
from various medical imaging instruments, including ultrasound, MRI, positron
emission tomography (PET), CT, endoscopy, mammograms, etc.
The focus of this TriMark Publications report is to analyze and describe the
PACS market segments. PACS market penetration in the U.S. healthcare space has
been significant, at almost 90%. A PACS network typically consists of a
central server that stores a database containing the images connected to one
or more clients via a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN)
that provides or utilizes the images. More and more PACS utilize
Internet-based technologies as their means of communication. This allows
remote viewing and diagnosis with implications for both civilian and military
healthcare facilities. Since radiology departments dominate the production of
images, interconnections with radiology information systems (RIS) are also
looked at in this study.
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