Informatics

Faculty:

Informatics is the study of information technology applied in this case to medicine. The faculty and staff in Radiology Informatics have been concentrating on designing and implementing a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) as well as all digital imaging capabilities. All images except mammography are now digital. Thus, they are stored in large archives online at all times so radiologists and referring physicians can see the images anytime, anywhere. Diagnostic workstations are used throughout the teaching institutions to display images for clinical use and interpretation. A large web server allows web access to images in the physicians' homes and offices. A CD-Rom burner connected to the network allows us to create CDs for remote physicians or for patients to take their images with them. PACS saves space, time, and money by improving the efficiency of resource utilization.

Recently the division has been involved with defining and implementing the interface between PACS and the Shands and Radiology information systems to allow images and reports to be accessed together. As a result, clinicians can now view reports on the secure web distribution along with the images. The division has created a large intranet site for administration and teaching files for instruction. A number of clinical tools facilitate the radiologists' jobs by providing information on coding and report generation throughout the system using web distribution.

Currently, informatics is collaborating with Vital Images to distribute 3D and high end image processing to radiologists and clinicians throughout the enterprise through Vital Connect. A task force has been formed to standardize and document imaging protocols to assure correct and complete imaging protocols. Access current protocols (in the future they will be searchable by indication, name, anatomy, etc.).