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Topic starter
Apologies if we aren't allowed to ask things like this here but I am looking for feedback on how you guys may handle PACS images brought in by patients. We have numerous options now but I am looking for a really good solution. First off, we employ a type of endpoint security which allows programs to execute only if they are approved in advance so is not possible to use the built in viewers on the CD ROM disks which patients bring. I have tried the following:
eMix Ambassador (successor to Web Ambassador from DR systems) @ $150/month
SanteSoft Viewer (Open Source)
RadiAnt Viewer (evaluation with limited features)
Web Ambassador from 2006 era, used for a specific radiology group in town before going to the cloud. We can open many images with the "View CD ROM" feature.
I thought eMix was going to work but it seems like it has trouble with showing "scout lines" in the studies on certain disks even though the scout line data is present on the CD. It looks like it could be a licensing thing and eMix support is baffled.
What I would like it to be able to provide the doctors a single place to go to read PACS images which patients bring into the office. It seems like there is at least one obstacle for each solution. There are other options like Orthanc, Osirix (OSX only but the docs seem to really want something like this), SCM Linux (Seems really unstable for some reason).
It is possible that what I am looking for does not exist so if you guys have any suggestions please share it here. It doesn't have to be free but it would be really nice. We are paying for eMix now and it does not seem to make the doctors happy. I thought DICOM was a standard which software developers could follow but I am finding that there are many differences in each viewer implementation.
Mike Zavolas
Tallahassee Neurological Clinic
Posted : June 5, 2017 8:14 am
I was going to recommend the RadiAnt viewer as I know of a neurologist who used that pretty much exclusively. He was a one man show and liked that he could load everything on his server and view it anywhere from his surface. He said it did everything he needed. At least that was my understanding.
Posted : June 5, 2017 8:32 am
We mainly load everything into our pacs system. When the patient is checking in, they give the cd to the check in person and they upload them during the checkin process.
If needed, we have an old program called dicomworks that will read almost any dicom image, but does have some issue in clarity.
Posted : June 5, 2017 8:59 am
We load everything into our PACS for outside images, but on my PC I use MicroDicom to view images and studies outside of our PACS system. I am not sure it has the features you need but the price is right.(free)
Posted : June 5, 2017 2:20 pm
Topic starter
Which PACS system do you have? Do you ever run into seemingly missing scout lines or other limitations? I suspect a license conundrum in my case, based on the wording of the error message in eMix of "This action not supported for 3rd party media". I do not fault eMix, but the software which created the disk. I am not a lawyer but I can't wrap my brain around such a thing being subject to a license. It seem unethical to me. If a real PACS system is the only way to extract and view ALL images, with scout lines then maybe that is what I need.
Mike Zavolas
Tallahassee Neurological Clinic
Posted : June 6, 2017 1:34 am
Topic starter
I may look into Radiant. I just did not look into it due to the "evaluation" label. I wanted to exhaust any free options out there first.
Posted : June 6, 2017 1:35 am
We use Viztek PACS but it is not a product I would recommend.
I called both of our CT techs and they stated that we have never noticed scout lines missing on imported studies but they have also not been looking for it either. Our radiologist had an issue with scout lines missing once but it was because he pressed a key on his keyboard which turned that feature off.
Posted : June 6, 2017 2:27 am
I would suggest looking into Lexmark's PacsGear PacsScan. I used it for years at multiple sites and it pretty slick. You might also look into Merge's eFilm it has similar fuctionality but I always preferred PacsScan.
Posted : June 7, 2017 7:54 am
You might take a look at K-PACS. It will view and display even the images that our GE PACS has problems with, so we import those to K-PACS and then export them to our PACS. Prior to obtaining a PACS five years ago, we used K-PACS locally. It just did not support images stored on a network very well.
Posted : June 7, 2017 9:08 am
