One of the key determinants influencing how successfully a radiology department can convert from a conventional film-based environment to an exclusively digital imaging environment may be how well referring physician members of the hospital staff who are not radiologists endorse this new system. The benefits of Picture Archive and Communication Systems (PACS) to radiologists are becoming widely accepted and documented; however, physicians who interact with the radiology department represent an important user group whose views on PACS are less well understood. The acceptance of PACS by referring physicians (clinicians) may be critical to the overall utility ofPACS as well as a major drivingforce behind why a hospitalpurchases PACS. The degree to which referring physicians support PACS may be dependent upon many factors. This study identifies several aspects through the administration and analysis ofa survey which improve PACS acceptance by nonradiology physicians. It appears the more patients a referring physician sends to the radiology department, the more time a physician spends traveling to andfrom thefllmflle room retrievingfllms, and, the more interested a referring physician is about computers, the higher his interest is in PACS. If a referring physician believes that PACS will save him or her time, will reduce the incidence oflostfilms, or will cause performance of radiology exams or generation of reports to be more efficient, the referring physician appears more likely to support PACS and to make the initial time investment necessary to learn how PACS equipment operates. The factors which cause referring physicians to support PACS are principally: (1) the elimination oflost, misplaced, and checked outfllms, and (2) the elimination oftrips to and from thefile room. The major distractions ofthe technology are: (1) system reliability, and (2) reduced diagnostic capability. While the high cost ofPACS is also a distraction, it is not the predominant concern.

Date Published: 1 August 1990
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 1234, Medical Imaging IV: PACS Systems Design and Evaluation, (1 August 1990); doi: 10.1117/12.19009

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1234:
Medical Imaging IV: PACS Systems Design and Evaluation
Samuel J. Dwyer III; R. Gilbert Jost M.D., Editor(s)