DR Systems will be exhibiting the newest release of its market-leading Unity Women’s Health Imaging PACS at the annual conference of the National Consortium of Breast Centers (NCBC).

The Unity PACS integrates a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) with full-field digital mammography (FFDM).

DR Systems is also sponsoring a breakfast symposium by a pioneer in the integration of PACS and full-field digital mammography (FFDM). Michael Trambert, M.D., lead radiologist for PACS reengineering at Sansum-Santa Barbara Medical Foundation Clinic (Calif.), will speak on his latest findings regarding the integrating FFDM with PACS.  The NCBC breakfast symposium will be held 6:30 am to 7:30 am, Monday, March 22.

Under Dr. Trambert’s guidance, Sansum went live with an integration of PACS and FFDM in 2004, making it one of the first facilities in the nation to do so.

The NCBC conference will be held March 20-24 at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The DR Systems booth is #53.

More than 60 customer sites nationwide now operate a DR Systems ’ Unity Women’s Health Imaging PACS, which includes breast imaging, reporting and tracking functions. The PACS provides a comprehensive solution for mammography that encompasses FFDM, third-party CAD, breast MRI, breast ultrasound, and breast reporting with automated regulatory compliance, including MQSA.

The Unity Women’s Health Imaging PACS is designed to support all imaging and non-image information in every modality: digital mammography, digitized prior film-based mammograms, breast MRI, PET-CT, breast ultrasound, CR - mammography, bone density, and nuclear imaging.

The automated platform integrates all necessary workflows, including:

• Resource-based scheduling
• Patient registration and tracking
• Technologist image acquisition
• Diagnostic reading and clinical review
• Automated reporting
• BiRADS, MQSA tracking and mailing
• Exam archive
• Web distribution to referring physicians and electronic medical records
• Charge capture to a facility’s billing system or service
• Facility-defined managerial reports

DR Systems is an industry leader in integrating disparate systems and workflows into a single system. Less integrated approaches can create numerous problems, such as isolated islands of information within the Women’s Health Imaging workflow and IT infrastructure. Linking multiple separate IT systems together through a series of interfaces increases the risk of malfunction because of system incompatibilities.

Integration is also more efficient from a cost standpoint. It eliminates redundant IT systems and reduces facility space requirements, which can free up space for additional exam rooms. In addition, a unified system avoids the cost and other inefficiencies of separate maintenance agreements and different training regimens.

The Unity Women’s Health Imaging PACS is scalable to facility size. Unity’s modular approach allows facilities to start with the base multi-modality Women’s Health Imaging PACS so they can leverage their existing IT investments. Facilities can later add options as needed and as budgets allow.

Source: DR Systems