| Rogan Medical Systems, founded in 1987 and
headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a manufacturer of PACS (Picture
Archiving and Communication System), a family of products designed
to digitize medical images for easy accessibility, display and manipulation
by medical professionals. Images can be copied, deleted, edited, displayed
and archived in compressed form. With Rogan’s PACs, the mode
of transferring or interchanging medical images within a hospital
or to other locations becomes easier and more secure, as does the
method for permanently archiving those images. Instead of printing
medical images on film, hospitals and radiology centers can house
those images in a complex, highly fail-safe server, which operates
on a fast network. Radiologists and physicians never touch the films,
preserving their integrity and greatly decreasing the chances for
loss.
Using a PACs, a doctor can retrieve an image quickly,
view multiple images simultaneously on a high-resolution screen
and even transfer that image, via modem, to another doctor at another
location. Physicians can also annotate images with text or mark
them with symbols to clearly illustrate the characteristics of the
pathology under study. With a CD\DVD-RAM function, such manipulation
can be done easily numerous times without destroying the clarity
and integrity of the original image.
The medical profession has come to rely CD-R and
CD-ROM functions that allow the medical community to collect, digitize,
manipulate and share millions of images. CD\DVD technology means
space and cost savings. CD\DVD libraries save space over their traditional
film-based counterparts. The images in CD\DVD libraries are more
secure, safer from the ravages of time. With the current emphasis
on reducing health-care costs, CD\DVD technology is a step in that
direction. Traditional film costs can be exorbitant, and much time
is spent locating misplaced images or redoing lost films, thereby
decreasing overall productivity. Hospitals can’t bill patients
without films, billing procedures can also be held up when a radiology
department is film-dependent.
Rogan Medical partnered with NSM library to deliver
fast, dependable image retrieval and communication systems to its
clients. Using the NSM Mercury 20, Mercury 31 and the Mercury 40
Rogan’s PACs can collect, organize and archive the medical
images of an entire hospital in a compact network that connects
the modalities of CT, MIR, ultrasound and other tests to a server
that transmits the images to high-resolutions workstations around
the hospital, at remote locations or in the physician’s home.
An NSM library was ideal for Rogan’s PACs
because of its archiving capacity. One chest X-ray, for example,
contains data equivalent to 450, two to three page business letters.
That’s a huge file, and every patient usually has two or three
X-rays taken to ensure a complete view. "You used to be able
to fill up a file room with one or two years worth of films,”
says Morales. "With an NSM solution, you can fit years and
years worth of films in a stack of CDs.” And that ability to
archive and locate old films allows physicians, especially researchers,
to deliver superior, cost-effective care to their patients. "The
archiving capability of CD technology is amazing and so important,
because if you lose your medical archive, you’re in a world
of hurt,” Morales adds.
Healthcare and Medical facilities utilizing CD\DVD
libraries for diagnostic images and patient record management include:
Intermountain Health Care, DeKalb Genetics, Siemens Medical Systems,
Clinical Pathology Laboratories, Kodak Health, Imnet, Temple University
Hospital, and Bellin Memorial Hospital.
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