Summary Slide

• Practical Design Features for a PACS Radiology Department

Practical Design Features for a PACS Radiology Department

Stephen G Davies

Royal Glamorgan Hospital

Overview

• Radiologist office / reporting areas

• Radiographer zone / image processing

• Computer room

Radiologist office

• Primary function is image viewing

• Workstation– ergonomics

• Desking– Height, size and cabling

• Environment– Light, heat and noise

Ergonomics

• Ergos = Work

• Nomos = Laws

• Workplace design taking into account the needs of an individual

• Consider tasks to be performed and the manner in which the individual will perform them

Why?

• We spend a lot of effort in the technical specification of PACS – we must also spend time on ergonomics– Diagnostic accuracy of

reporting

– Health of radiologist/radiographer

Key areas

• Environmental lighting and its effect on image perception

• Avoidance of repetitive strain injury– Body posture– Repetitive movements– Desking; mousing and keyboard

Environmental lighting

• Visual perception influenced by– Spatial and contrast resolution of display– Brightness (luminance) of the display– Extraneous lighting in reporting room

Brightness of image display

• Contrast sensitivity of the human eye increases as the object luminance increases

• Perceived image quality also increases with increasing image luminance, until glare has a negative effect

• But PACS monitors have lower levels of luminance

• Other factors become more important– Masking of image surrounds– Extraneous light

Extraneous light

• Contrast good for display; bad for reflection

• Ambient lighting– Low level– Suspended uplighting– Supplemented by task

lighting

• Extraneous light– Window; corridor

Desk requirements

• Monitor footprint• Separate RIS

monitor• Cable tray • Mouse and keyboard

position• Paperwork• Task lighting

Desk and Chair

• Optimum body posture – not ideal posture

• Desk and chair height for– Mouse and keyboard– Monitor– Spine

Reporting room layout

• Two and four station• Lighting• Noise• Heat

Radiographer zone:Image processing

• Space

• Workflow (CR+DR)

• Environment– Light– Heat

• Power and network points

• Back up systems

Computer Room• Equipment

– Archive/ RAID– Servers - Clinics, Wards, Teleradiology– Servers - RIS and Dictation

• Access to equipment

• Cooling

• Room for expansion

• Security

• Disaster: fire, flood, etc