Imaging Services "LinkUp" Between Suburban Clinics and Texas Children's Hospital

Suburban Houston children with medical problems that require diagnostic imaging services can now benefit from state-of-the-art computer technology at Texas Children's Health Centers in northwest Houston and Sugar Land.

The new filmless Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) transmits digital X-ray images via a network to the pediatric radiologist's review station at Texas Children's Hospital in the Texas Medical Center.

Images are available within 10 minutes for review and interpretation by a subspecialty-trained pediatric radiologist at the hospital. Diagnostic reports on urgent requests are available within the hour, and routine reports are available within 24 hours.

"This enterprise-wide imaging system enables us to provide the same quality of patient care at the suburban Health Centers as we do at Texas Children's Hospital," said Dr. Charles E. Willis, diagnostic radiologic physicist who serves as Texas Children's PACS coordinator.

PACS also allows retrieval of past patient exams, whether performed at the Health Centers or at Texas Children's Hospital, for review at any time by physicians.

"We're improving image availability by bringing the entire film file room to the desktop," said Rose Honea, PACS manager at Texas Children's. "We can pull up a child's medical-imaging history with a few keystrokes."

---

©2006 Texas Medical Center

---

E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/11_01_00/page_09.html