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Electronic medical imaging technologies and hospital networks are integrating higherimage resolutions with picture archiving and communications systems ( PACS ).

Electronic medical imaging technologies are becoming increasingly sophisticated, directlycontributing to improved patient care. Specifically, hospital networks are integrating higherimage resolutions with picture archiving and communications systems ( PACS ). This integration not only extends the ability of physicians to diagnose and treat previouslyundetected medical conditions, but also provides rapid access and retrieval of patientimages by emergency physicians and surgeons working under critical, time-sensitivesituations.

The overall demand for cardiovascular procedures is on the rise around the world. In part,this is due to the growing population of older patients who are more susceptible to physicaldiseases and chronic ailments, and also the success of interventional cardiovasculardiagnostic and acute care procedures. As a result, the adoption of cardiology PACS amongmedical providers is increasing rapidly and contributing to the dramatic rise in the demandfor archive storage. Because of the ”always-on” accessibility and rapid response madepossible by online media, cardiology PACS are a “must-have” technology in cardiovascularcare.

Not only are cardiology labs producing more diagnostic images over time, but many of thelabs have upgraded from the older 512 x 512 pixel matrix with an 8-bit image format andare starting to use higher 1024 x 1024 image matrix formats on the flat panelcardiovascular x-ray equipment used in many of the catheterization (cath) labs. As a resultof using the higher image matrix frames, the average catheterization procedure nowrequires 500 megabytes of storage space, doubling the average 250 megabytes perprocedure used in 2002. By 2010, the average catheterization procedure is expected toexpand to 725 megabytes per procedure, representing another 45 percent increase. As apoint of reference, current cath procedures require ten times more storage than theaverage radiology image file of 50 megabytes.

Source: EMC Corporation

You can discuss more about Cardiology and related topics in our Cardiology Group.