The role of PACS in redesigning the radiologic practice

More and more people see the use of PACS as a means to cut operating cost and increase productivity in radiology service. But the number of successful PACS implementations is still limited. This paper discusses the possible future direction of PACS development and what it might mean in reengineering radiology service. Topics covered include: the conventional and possible new approaches to PACS; the new environment; real-time radiology; the digital free market; health care and information; the ubiquitous network-the Internet; centralized and decentralized radiology; and the changing nature of the radiology sub-specialist.