Costs savings, ease of use, better long-term storage of medical images make pacs technology a hit.
Digital imaging is fast making life easier for patients and hospitals. Patients may no longer have to carry around images of X-ray, MRI, CT scan, mammograms, ultrasound, EEG and other medical tests every time they head out to see a doctor. Besides, misplacing medical records may not mean additional expenditure on duplicates.
Corporate hospitals across the country are now opening up to a digital imaging technology for storage and easy retrieval of images, thereby saving patients time and effort of carrying their medical records.
Called picture archival and communications system (PACS), the technology helps store images such as MRI, CT scans, X-ray etc in a compressed form in a centralised server connected to all the imaging machines. After a test is done, the image is stored in the centralised hospital server. Whenever a patient visits consultants, the images can be retrieved from this server. Ankur Bharti, the healthcare consultant at management consulting firm Technopak, said, “Doctors can view the patient’s images from any room in the hospital.”
Lloyd Nazareth, the chief operating officer of Wockhardt Hospitals, said PACS is an effective tool for long-term storage of images. Wockhardt has implemented PACS in its Bangalore hospital and would extend this to 3-4 more hospitals in the next one year.
Similarly, Apollo Hospital group has implemented the technology in four of its 43 hospitals. Srinivasan R, the information technology head at Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, said, “When stored digitally, the images can be viewed by consultants in their entirety. Consultants can also zoom in to a particular factor in the image, which is not possible otherwise.” Soft copies of the image can be mailed for further review and consultations. Besides, patients can get multiple copies of the image without having to undergo the tests again, said Suman Singhal, senior consultant (radiology) at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi.
Industry experts said that storing medical images in film archives is a cumbersome process for large hospitals where the number of ultrasounds or X-rays done daily exceeds 500. Wockhardt’s Nazareth added that PACS helps store images digitally for as many as 10-15 years. The shelf life of medical images stored as films is shorter as exposure to moisture and sun can damage them.
According to Technopak’s Bharti, PACS costs anywhere between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 3 crore for installation in big hospitals. But it does help save costs in the long run, added Apollo’s Srinivasan. “PACS is slated to replace the age-old method of storing medical image in a hard copy or on film. One film costs Rs 80-100. So digital storage helps save costs on films,” he said.
In the last 2-3 years, the adoption of the technology has increased significantly in the country. “More than 55-65 hospitals in India have already implemented PACS. Almost 12-15 installations happen every year,” said Bharti. Technopak data pegs the PACS market in the country at Rs 30-35 crore, growing at about 30% annually. Bharti said that going forward, such images may also be made available online, on hospitals’ websites.
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