Unless you have practicing medicine in a very isolated part of the world for the past two decades, you are aware of how digital imaging has changed the field of health care - and how mammography workstations are making it easier and faster to diagnose life-threatening disease with greater accuracy than ever before. What you may not know is that the Picture Archive and Communications, or PACS systems that are at the heart of the digital imaging revolution are now easier to afford than ever before, thanks to the dramatic decreases in the cost of computer hardware and digital storage media. This means that every health care facility can - and should - have its own mammography workstation.

You Already Know How To Use It

All PACS workstations - are based on the same essential PC technology with which you are already familiar. The only difference is in the software required for viewing DICOM image files and the need for an exceptionally high-resolution monitor. Beyond this however, clinics and hospitals that have PACS systems in place can add any number of PACS workstations.

Support For Multiple Modalities

The beauty of PACS systems is that it is possible to view medical images made in a variety of modalities, including MRI, EEG, EKG, CT and even X-rays. PACS workstation software allows you to see these images in a higher resolution than every before - and even see images of internal organs in virtual 3-D space as you would a CAD model. These virtual models can even be color coded for greater clarity.

They're Affordable

The Radiology Department of the Ohio State University Medical Center was among the first health care and treatment facilities that installed PACS systems nearly twenty years ago. Since that time, it is estimated that the use of PACS workstations have saved the center well over $1 million and thousands of hours of labor. At that time however, such systems were very costly, as were the computer hardware on which PACS workstations were run.

Today, your clinic or small hospital can have its own PACS system complete with mammography workstations at as little as $5000, thanks to the dramatic fall in the costs of computer hardware. There are several different models from which to choose, and most such systems are easily upgraded - so you can start out small and add to the system over time as funding permits. There is no reason not to take advantage of the technological benefits of a mammography workstation.



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