an imaging department planning to
convert from a hard-copy practice
to a filmless practice faces numerous
challenges and questions.
• Are all modalities digital-ready?
• Do the imaging department and medical
center have the required infrastructure?
• What workflow changes need to occur?
• What will the impact be on the emergency
department, department of surgery, and
other parts of the patient practice?
• How will the electronic environment be
managed: data correction, user support, image
archival, and data center oversight of
the computer hardware and software that
make up the “system”?
Although this article largely assumes a
completely film-based department that is in
the midst of a total conversion to a filmless
department, many of the same points apply to
a practice that is already partly filmless. For
example, perhaps the site has a filmless ultrasound
practice. Then care must be taken to
evaluate the practice divisions that still remain
to be converted, and the same questions posed
above need to be answered. Also, will all areas
converge onto the same electronic systems
or will there be islands, with ultrasound images
on one system and CT images on another?
There is a tremendous learning curve in
the move from a hard-copy film environment
to a filmless environment. Collectively, these
new concepts are part of the realm of imaging
informatics. What is imaging informatics?
The Society of Imaging Informatics in
Medicine describes imaging informatics as