Enterprise Imaging: The Next Frontier in Healthcare Technology–A Liturature Review

Abstract

A review of the literature was performed to evaluate, review and discuss the imaging systems of picture archiving and communication system (PACS), vendor neutral archive (VNAs) and enterprise imaging. Method A search through the databases of PubMed, OvidMedline, Scopus and Embase was performed utilizing several keywords relevant to image storage in various combinations of "OR" and "AND". Articles were carefully assessed according to inclusion and exclusion criteria where only articles published in the last 10 years were obtained to collect recent information. Additionally, articles found from the reference sections of electronically sourced articles were also reviewed. Results The review revealed that traditional PACS suffer from several limitations of data storage, migration and maintenance. VNAs improve upon this situation by allowing images from different departments to be shared easily and extend this ability to in between organizations. Physical copies of images are no longer needed and applications such as teleradiology and mobile imaging are possible. Enterprise imaging attempts to provide a format that allows for organizations to govern the management of image sharing and storage between institutions using a set of 7 characteristics that define an efficient system. Conclusion Image storage technology has experienced several advancements in recent years. Traditional PACS imaging has allowed for image capture, viewing, storage and analysis but is unable to perform effective image sharing across institutions. VNAs have provided a system to surpass this limitation by normalizing proprietary digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) formats used by PACS vendors. With the advent of new technology, enterprise imaging has been developed as a system that enables the management of multi-departmental and multi-institutional image sharing in one system.