"PACS Laws" by Dr. Dalai

Dr. Dalai Blog Logo

Here is a great piece of "PACS" by Dr. Dalai .. a well known PACS professional and blogger. Dr. Dalai started blogging long time ago (~2005) criticizing current status of imaging informatics and vendor's role on this. Dr. Dalai writes his blogs on

(http://doctordalai.blogspot.com)

Even though Dr. Dalai writes long blogs, but I always enjoyed his writings. I choose one article he recently wrote on his blog which summarized his long experience .. Enjoy it ..

“ Over the years, certain trends and patterns in PACS and our relations with PACS vendors as well as Information Technology became clear. I’ve distilled these into the LAWS of PACS. I have revised this list over the years, as the landscape keeps changing. Here they are

1. PACS IS the radiology department.
   
2. PACS exists to improve patient care. Its users are the radiologists and radiologic technologists. The entire goal of the PACS team is to optimize PACS function for its users.
3. PACS should be the shared responsibility of the radiology and IT departments.
4. PACS should not get in your way.
5. Workflow is inversely proportional to the number of buttons on the PACS desktop.
6. PACS is not film.
   
7. The degree of understanding of Radiologist workflow is inversely proportional to the size of the PACS company.
   
8. Vendors work for us, not the other way around.
9. A true PACS guru is worth his/her weight in gold.
10. All software errors, including those within PACS code, can be repaired if the vendor is sufficiently motivated to do so.
11. If IT doesn’t like something, it will be termed a security risk.
12. The PACS needs to be operable by the least technically-savvy radiologist on staff.
    
13. Drive before you buy. Request for test environment for your new systems; i.e. Virtual machine of your servers, (Q8PACS Admin)