The Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center relocated onto the campus ofthe University of Maryland at Baltimore campus and opened in January 1993. Although the original bed capacity was 300, the hospital is currently operating approximately 200 beds. The imaging department currently performs approximately 60,000 examinations per year (up from 34,000 in 1993). Both the hospital and radiology departments were designed for digital rather than conventional imaging. The Picture Archival and Communication System (PACS) has been in operation for three and a halfyears. Radiologists have been reading imaging studies in a "soft-copy" mode using computer workstations for approximately 3 years. One hundred percent ofthe imaging studies are currently archived to the PACS. However conventional film/screen is still used as the acquisition modality for mammography and for primary interpretation of mammograms by the radiologists. These mammograms are then digitized into the PACS and are thus available for clinicians for soft-copy review.

Date Published: 22 May 1997
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 3035, Medical Imaging 1997: PACS Design and Evaluation: Engineering and Clinical Issues, (22 May 1997); doi: 10.1117/12.274573

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3035:
Medical Imaging 1997: PACS Design and Evaluation: Engineering and Clinical Issues
Steven C. Horii M.D.; G. James Blaine, Editor(s)