Picture Archiving and Communication System ( PACS): Clinician's Perspective About Filmless Imaging

Picture archiving and communication systems ( PACS) are most appropriate means of acquiring, archiving, and communicating all forms of radiology imaging. The present study is to decide applicability of PACS, its exact role in patient care, and benefit as a teaching tool. To compare conventional imaging with picture archiving and communication system from user's point of view, impact of PACS on patient care and teaching. This was a single center, observational study over a period of 4 weeks from 15 January 2010 to 15 February 2010 carried out in Pravara Rural Hospital. For the present study, 100 users from various clinical disciplines were included who routinely use PACS. A pretested questionnaire related to various aspects of PACS was devised considering its advantage to clinicians, role in patient care, and as tool for teaching. Out of 100 users, 85 % users reported PACS easy to very easy for handle. Ninety-four percent users reported PACS as useful tool for the hospital. Fifty-one percent of users found image quality at image review workstation to be good to very good against 49 % found it poor to very poor. There have been several studies to demonstrate the benefits of PACS to users, but many of these have concentrated on radiology trainees, users in a particular department. Present study concentrates on the impact that PACS has made to the working of the clinicians in many different disciplines. The perceived benefits of PACS outnumbered the disadvantages and reflected the widely documented benefits of PACS in the literature.