The IP Address defined.
Thursday, 05 March 2009 22:25
John Sole
The IP Address or Internet Protocol address is an address assigned to a computer so that it can talk to other computers on a network. An address needs to be unique to the network segment that it is on, but that same address can be on another network. A few addresses are even designated to be unique to the world and exist only once.When troubleshooting network issues such as an image wont send to the PACS server, you can use the ping utility that uses the IP. It simply sends a small packet of information to another computer and if the other computer receives that ping, meaning that it is on the network and working, it sends a response back telling you it is alive. If it helps to visualize, the address of a device can be compared to your street address, which is unique to your town but not unique to your state or country. Now, there may be many 1035 Union Street address in the country but consider each town as its own network segment. This protocol is found on the 3rd layer of the OSI model. An Internet Protocol address is built off of 4 octets (8 binary digits), each octet being 1 byte in length. Therefore an entire address would be 4 bytes in length. The image below is an example of how an address is organized. 
 In an upcoming article, we'll review the various classes of networks and how they work into subnets.Â
Radiology Workflow for the PACS Administrator!
Saturday, 07 March 2009 10:22
John Sole
Radiology workflow! It is where the money is in the PACS world. Even the most technically superior PACS will not offer an expected ROI if a department can’t get its electronic processes correct.As a PACS Administrator, understanding the processes within the department helps you to know where to look when specific incidents occur. Having a solid understanding of how information travels throughout the department will also allow you to analyze your PACS to make improvements if you are not getting the performance that you expected. Installing a new PACS? Learning this information will be instrumental in helping you prepare for that new PACS. As you progress through the pages within this section, you will find information about how a typical imaging department operates from the time an order is entered until the final report is signed. If you are the IT born PACS Administrator, this section will be critical for you. For the rad-tech born PACS Administrators, some of this will be review but some of it will also help you understand what is happening behind the scenes in the HIS/RIS and PACS. Topics in the Radiology Workflow menu include: Order Entry Specifics, Modality Worklist Selection, Image Acquisition, Study Reading, Report Generation.Â
Last Updated on Saturday, 07 March 2009 10:25
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Operating Systems
Thursday, 05 March 2009 21:48
John Sole
Operating Systems, which are also known by the acronym OS will be the next section of discussion in the IT Skills section. Most people are familiar with the Microsoft Windows platform of computing however, not all PACS systems run on Windows. This is why, as a PACS Administrator, you will need to understand the different brands of systems. The OS is the software on which any workstation, server, laptop PDA or other computing device can run. The OS is responsible for sharing and coordinating all of the hardware resources on the device and allowing them to talk to each other. There are three major OS's in use today: Windows, Unix/Linux and Macintosh's OS X (OS 10). Each has it's advantages: Windows is the most widely used OS, Unix/Linux is open source, so you can use it for free and the Mac OS X is very stable and has outstanding graphics capabilities. In contrast, each also has distinct disadvantages: Windows crashes fairly easily and has many security vulnerabilities, Unix/Linux is not a mainstream system therefore it is more difficult to adapt to widespread use in an organization and Mac OS X has proprietary hardware from Apple meaning that you can't put OS X on any hardware you would like. Some names of some lesser known systems include: Solaris, BSD, QNX and VxWorks. To my knowledge, there are no PACS systems running on any of these lesser known OS's. As a PACS administrator, I would recommend focusing on the Microsoft Server, XP and Vista platforms and learning Unix and Linux OS's when you have the oportunity. Learning to operate in the Unix/Linux environment is a great way to build text based computing skills. Anybody working as a PACS administrator at an Emageon PACS site can attest to that.Â
Last Updated on Thursday, 05 March 2009 22:18
Basics of a Radiology Image QA Program
Saturday, 07 March 2009 10:27
John Sole
When planning a radiology image QA program in your radiology department, you must make sure to provide the imaging technologists with appropriate tools to perform the work. This means installing appropriate video cards and monitors that can be calibrated and measured to the DICOM grayscale standard. 2 megapixel monitors that are 21 inches in size are sufficient enough to show diagnostic quality images for MRI, CT, Ultrasound and other modalities with the exception of general x-ray iamges and mammography images. Monitors such as the Planar px212 are sufficient and affordable enough to purchase and sprinkle throughout each area. For general x-ray, you will want to purchase at least one 3 megapixel monitor to place in a central location for image evaluation activities. For mammography, the FDA requires a five megapixel monitor for diagnostic viewing. Considering there are numerous requirements for quality assurance in mammography that will be excluded from discussion here. As a PACS Administrator, recommend to your leadership team that an image QA program should be set up to allow all of the technologists to see images similar to the way a radiologist will see those images. This will help to ensure that by the time the images are available for the radiologist to read, they will have been viewed as they will appear to the radiologist. Also, mention to your leadership team that there are various solutions out there that will allow you to build a quality program which ultimately helps to reduce turnaround time.
Last Updated on Sunday, 19 April 2009 18:28
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