CHAPTER 28
New Directions in PACS and Medical Imaging Informatics Training
The picture archiving and communication system (PACS) is an imaging information system that is now widely used in daily clinical practice. For its successful implementation, training of users has been found to be necessary. A review of PACS training thus far shows that the major emphasis in training has been placed on the use of display workstations (WSs). Although training on the use of the WS is indispensible to clinical and other healthcare users who will utilize the system, PACS as an integrated information system with many components and capabilities also requires that the user understand how the system works and how to utilize many hidden capabilities in addition to reviewing images and making clinical diagnoses. For example, the wealth of data in the PACS database has stimulated many nonradiology physicians and allied healthcare providers, physicists and biologists, and engineers to use the data for applications in their respective fields of expertise, as well as for collaborative research and development with radiologists. The majority of these groups of PACS users may not be as proficient as radiologists in reading and assessing images from the WS, but their combined efforts and results have propelled radiology as a field to higher scientific importance as demonstrated in the proliferation of imaging informatics development over the last five years. These user groups may also need to learn about ...
