In the current era of healthcare reform, spawned by the funding made available in the HITECH Act of February's stimulus package, there has been much discussion about producing transparent and quantifiable data on the performance of various departments.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has published a new standard, XR 24-2008, which focuses on primary user controls for x-ray angiography equipment.

For a number of leading-edge enterprises, image management across multiple ologies is the logical next step in the ongoing image management process. Integrating image-intense ologies such as cardiology, pathology and orthopedics into the radiology image management solution can deliver a number of advantages. Facilities and health systems working toward the vision of a unified platform anticipate benefits on all fronts: clinical, operational and economic.

Building bridges between imaging and other image- and report-dependent departments is the focus of the annual meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) that rolls into Charlotte, N.C., from June 4 to 7.

For cardiology PACS, the explosion of cardiac-related advances across imaging modalities has created demand for expanded capabilities beyond simple image storage and distribution, providing physicians with access to patient-specific information related to images and reports within the facility or externally. Meanwhile, with this increased volume of image data, cardiologists also need to have access to more extensive patient data, such as hemodynamic monitoring, EKG and electronic medical record (EMR) information to create structured reports.

Deploying PACS capabilities beyond a single radiology facility provides the opportunity of extending the reach of diagnostic imaging to a greatly expanded customer base. The benefits to imaging center practitioners are straightforwardincreased market share and greater efficiencies from existing personnel.

Due to growing imaging utilization and the push toward heightened integration between IT systems and imaging modalities, orthopedic clinics are increasingly adopting PACS in their practices.

At first glance, it would seem that the pieces are in place for bringing digital endoscopy onto the enterprise PACS; however, according to a pair of healthcare informatics pioneers who have set themselves this task, there are still issues remaining to be resolved.