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PACS Workstation - What you need to make a good one.To begin a discussion of what is needed to build a quality PACS workstation that will give you a few years of mileage lets discus he different types of workstations that one may encounter. The differences are subtle yet offer differing configurations allowing the PACS administrator to design machines that can fill specific roles but also reduce costs where possible. The decisions that will need to be made are to balance the need for performance with the desire to reduce costs. In the beginning of PACS and even in the current generation, the PACS vendors would typically provide the workstations with the purchase of the system or at best, explicitly detail what workstations needed to be purchased. In the new generations of PACS and as service contracts expire; organizations are demanding the flexibility of designing their own workstations. Now, the PACS administrator can be faced with the need to build the PACS workstation on their own if they chose to end the service contract. The types of workstation that may need to be built include; Diagnostic Reading Workstation, Technologist QA Workstation, and Clinical Viewing Stations. Clinical Viewing Station – For critical viewing areas around the hospital (ICU, ER etc). Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo – 1.80GHz RAM: 1 GB DDR2 SDRAMM Hard Drive: 80 GB SATA Video Card: 128 MB PCI Express card Monitor: Single 21” Monitor Technologist QA Workstation – For technologists to QA images throughout Radiology. Processor: Dual-Core Intel Xeon – 2.00GHz RAM: 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM Hard Drive: 160 GB SATA Video Card: 256 MB PCI Express Dual DVI Monitor: Single 21” Monitor (set to 1600x1200 or 1200x1600 resolution) Diagnostic Reading Workstation – For the Radiologist. Processor: Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 2.33 GHz RAM: 4 GB DDR2 SDRAM (8 if the machine is a 64 bit) Hard Drive: Dual 200 GB SATA Video Card: 1 PCI Express 128 MB(Ancillary), 1 or 2 NVIDIA QuadroFX 3500 or 4500 or ATI Fire GL (256 or 512 MB) Monitor: 1 19” Ancillary monitor (2MP), 2 or 4 HI-Res monitors (3MP or 5MP) (I recommend 5MP if you will be reading Mammography) These recommendations are merely that, recommendations. Analyze what your needs are and what your vendor will allow you to do. If you have any comments or questions about my recommended minimum specifications, use the form below and let me know.
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