Integrating PACS with Digital Mammography was Focus of Presentation at NCBC Meeting
LAS VEGAS – Integrating digital mammography with PACS proved far better than reading mammograms on mammo-only specialty workstations. That was the conclusion reported by a Pennsylvania hospital, in a poster presentation at the recent National Consortium of Breast Centers’ (NCBC) conference.The presentation was by Peggy Wright, Supervisor of Women’s Imaging at Butler Health System, in Butler, Penn. She reported on using Butler’s Unity™ RIS/PACS from DR Systems to integrate digital mammography and PACS
Butler concluded that integrating digital mammography with a mammography-oriented PACS helped the hospital avoid a costly space remodel. It also made reading, results reporting, and billing more efficient and provided better service to referring physicians.
“Not having to spend the capital for a space remodel was a key for us,” said Wright. “Even so, the advantages of integrating our digital mammography equipment with our PACS would probably have led us to that solution even without the space issue. Integrating digital mammography with the DR Systems PACS made it possible for us to reap the clinical and capacity-enhancing advantages of digital mammography, without a loss of efficiency and productivity.”
An imaging facility has two options for implementing full-field digital mammography (FFDM). It can integrate FFDM with its PACS so that all digital imaging modalities are read on the facility’s existing PACS workstation. Or it can have digital mammograms read on special mammography reading stations and mini-PACS acquired from an FFDM vendor.
The first approach is designed to leverage a facility’s already-considerable investment in its PACS and avoid paying for redundant hardware and service contracts. The second approach essentially creates a technological island for mammography, where mammograms are treated differently than other modalities and require separate human and technological support systems.
While the second approach is the one more commonly used, the poster showed that integration of FFDM with PACS is more beneficial from a variety of standpoints.
Before implementing FFDM in late 2008, Butler researched the mammography island approach by visiting facilities that used specialty workstations from leading digital mammography vendors. They found the sites were not enthusiastic about their experience with the workflow associated with these workstations.
Moreover, Butler had space constraints in its Women’s Center that would have forced it to undertake expensive capital improvements to make room for specialty workstations. Adding cabling and outlets would have added further expense.
Besides avoiding the remodeling project, Butler learned that integrating mammography with PACS had other advantages over the mammography island approach:
- Comparison of current mammograms to prior mammograms. Because both current and prior mammograms can be stored on a PACS, side-by-side comparison with FFDM-PACS integration is easy. But prior mammograms are not usually stored on a specialty workstation because the workstations have limited storage capacity.
- Comparison of mammograms to other modalities. With an integrated system, radiologists can compare a patient’s mammograms to all other modalities on the hospital’s existing PACS. If on the other hand, current mammograms are read on a specialty workstation, radiologists have to physically move over to the PACS to view other non-breast studies of the patient such as an MRI or ultrasound.
- Archiving and web access by referring physicians. If mammograms are read on PACS, they are automatically available to referring physicians on any web-connected computer because of the PACS’ ability to distribute reports and images to the Internet. Specialty mammography workstations do not have web-distribution ability. Nor do they have sufficient storage capacity for archiving. That means technologists have to “push” mammograms to the PACS for archiving and access by referring physicians, an inefficient use of their time.
- Results reporting. Reporting mammogram results on Butler’s DR Systems PACS is more efficient because the PACS’ highly integrated reporting suite is one of the best in the industry. In contrast, the mammography island approach would have forced Butler to maintain a mammography reporting and MQSA data point tracking system that was separate from the PACS system.
- Efficient billing. Butler is able to capture billable mammography activities in DR Systems’ PACS and output to their enterprise billing application. Specialty workstations don’t have billing capture capability.
- Radiologist satisfaction and familiarity. On an integrated system, radiologists are able to read mammograms without learning a new user interface.
NCBC’s 19th Annual Interdisciplinary Breast Center Conference was held March 15-18 in Las Vegas.
About DR Systems
DR Systems, Inc. is the leading independent provider of enterprise imaging and information management systems for hospitals, integrated healthcare networks and diagnostic imaging centers. The company's mission is to enhance the clinical and financial success of its medical imaging customers. For more than 16 years, DR Systems has helped over 500 hospitals and imaging center sites lower their cost of operation by improving management of patient information and improving workflow, while providing better patient care.
Reinforcing the company’s reputation for long-term customer satisfaction, DR Systems was ranked by KLAS® as the #1 PACS vendor in its “Top 20: Best in KLAS reports" in 2001, 2006 and 2007. In 2006, DR Systems was ranked #1 by KLAS, as the highest-scoring vendor across all healthcare informatics categories.
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