Microsoft Amalga RIS/PACS

Amalga RIS/PACS will be the new member of Microsoft Amalga. Amalga family members include Amalga HIS, Amalga Life Sciences, and Amalga Unified Intelligence System. Another healthcare solution from Microsoft is the Microsoft HealthVault.

Even though Microsoft has always been a pure IT solutions company. Microsoft is relatively new to this field, but that doesn't realy mean a bad thing. Inovation always comes as new !

Recently, news said that Microsoft is finally come up with the PACS/RIS through the Amalga PACS/RIS. Frankly speaking, Microsoft has shaped the way IT solutions outreach to many people and organizations with their verity IT solutions including their MS-Windows OS. So, will Amalga PACS/RIS change the future of Imaging informatics too?

Amalga HIS: Image enabled technology

I have divided my anticipation to the future of this product as positive and negative, advantages and disadvantages to under line such product of such key player in IT industry.

I have put some of these points in humorous way, but that doesn’t mean that Microsoft is a clown! Staytoon and watch for this product !!

“ What will happen when Amalga PACS/RIS is released? ”

Positives · PACS/RIS will be everywhere. Small hospitals off course will get a hacked copy. Just don’t run the genuinity check utility if you have the auto-update running! · PACS/RIS administration will be piece of cake (easy). Authentication using active directory, alerts using process monitors, statistics using excel templates, · PACS/RIS will be easily customizable. Field boxes, check boxes, drop down menus, and macros.. all possible using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). · Every thing can be done by drag and drop. To reject an image just drop it to the Recycle Bin icon and then you can always change your mind and restore it back. · Integration with other Microsoft products. Lots of smart tags, Web Based using IIS v.7.5,  teaching archive using Sharepoint server. · DB migration is a piece of cake using MS-SQL 2008 migration tools. Just match the field on the UI and click the “GO” Button. · Need help for sophisticated problems? Just login to http://msdn.microsoft.com. · Doctors will be able to do tele-radiology through NetMeeting or Ms-Messenger. With emoticons off course. · You will always blame one company for any problem in the system. Thank you Vin. !! since OS, DB, and Application are from one provider. · First level technical support will be done through a help desk in Banglore, India. If that doesn’t help a service engineer from a service partner will visit the site in just 72 hours. · You can download your frequent service patches from http://update.amalga.com

Negatives · A beta version will be released free of charge and price for the official release will be 50% less than competitor’s. · At the day of the official release, hospital imaging IT personnel will stand in long lines to get their copy. · First Service Patch (SP1) will be released only one week from the release day. · Hospitals have to do a lot of System Reboot. · If problem persists, just format and reload your PACS/RIS.. What about the database ? Don’t worry you will get easy DB recovery tools ! · malware (virus) programmers  will target the new product and lots of them will be coded to replace medical images with personal photos like those of The Simpson’s cartoon characters…

Q8PACS Census 2010

"Census" is a tool to evaluate some current position of a phenomena and another great tool to forecast future of the same phenomena within a region.

Unfortunately, PACS/RIS installations in Kuwait were neither done based on info. nor based on a clear plan.

Moreover, lack of intercommunication in MOH resulted that many hospitals in Kuwait has more than one PACS/RIS. In fact, there is a one hospital in Kuwait which has Four PACS systems.

"There is a one hospital in Kuwait which has Four PACS systems"

For this reason, Q8PACS is calling for PACS/RIS census for all Public and Private hospitals in Kuwait and calling for your kind support by participating in below questionnaire.

Fig.1  shows prelimenary results of Kuwait PACS/RIS census 2009 showing total no. of PACS, RIS in Kuwait for Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Cardiology specialties (e.g. echo, interventional, etc..).

Preliminary results show that Kuwait have 16 PACS installations, and 14 RIS installations. Among 16 PACS installation 3 installations only are in private hospitals while others are all in public ones.

" Kuwait have 16 PACS installations, Only 3 of which are in private hospitals "

This Census "Q8PACS Census 2010" will run on three phases. Phase(I) will count the existing PACS/RIS systems, phase(II) will conduct censuing for PACS/RIS setup(i.e, Storage capacity, Network speed, etc..) while phase(III) will count the PACS vacancies.

Again, this census will help in evaluating our current position and will help in assessing our position in the future. 

If you have trouble in reading/filling questionnaire below. Please following the link below

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dFNRRGU5SEs1ajZEQjFyaVR1RDRmNVE6MA..