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| A PACS administrator is critical to support healthcare imaging applications |
There is no question that
the traditional role of PACS System Administrators (SA) has changed over the
past 15 years, and there is also no question that it will continue to evolve
over the next 5 to 10 years. Instead of “going with the flow,” it might be wise
as a PACS SA to actively anticipate the future for as far as possible, and work
towards a preferable upwards career path. Remember that even though there are
no formal statistics, it is generally assumed that each person has about seven
different careers in their lifetimes, which means, assuming 42 years of
employment that means one might be on the lookout for a change every six years.
There are plenty of opportunities
for PACS SA’s as they have acquired unique multifunctional skills and
experiences that are very valuable in managing and supporting healthcare
imaging and IT systems. These range from internal career growth to managing
multiple imaging departments or electronic records management, working as an
independent consultant or for a major consulting firm. One can also transition
to the vendor side in sales, project management or as a service and support
professional.This series of articles will
explore the trends and changes that have occurred over the past few decades
with the PACS SA career, and explore each of these career tracks by
interviewing established PACS SA’s in a given field. Although I have spoken
with quite a few PACS administrators, as many of them have attended our PACS
and DICOM, HL7 and IHE training classes, this is limited to an overview and
will not try to present a comprehensive examination of all possible PACS
careers. Nevertheless, I hope this series will l jump start ongoing regular interactions,
not only during our live web-based interview sessions, the first being on September
4 (TIME 7:00 PM CST) on our first OTech
Google+ “Hangout” but also
afterwards. (Join OTech on Google+ and
add us to your circles and tell us your interest while joining our “Hangouts” in
order to receive an invitation for the upcoming applicable Hangouts.
PACS administrators are
known by many different titles. Based on a survey, there appears to be a wide
variation of job titles reported by those filling the role of a PACS or Imaging
and Informatics professional. The most frequently reported job title (37%) is
“PACS Administrator,” or “PACS System Administrator.” The next most frequently
reported job title (11%) is “RIS/PACS administrator.” Only 11% of professionals
have the word “imaging” in their job title.
Below is a list of the job titles reported in
the survey:
Chief
Tech/PACS Administrator
|
PACS
- Clin. Eng.Syst. Integrator
|
Clinical
Applications Analyst
|
PACS
(System) Administrator
|
Computer
Specialist / imaging
|
PACS
Admin/ QM Tech
|
Digital
Imaging Analyst
|
PACS
Analyst
|
Director
of Imaging and IT Infrastructure
|
PACS
Coordinator
|
Director
of Information Technology
|
PACS
Manager
|
Enterprise
System Administrator
|
PACS
Technical Support Manager
|
Imaging
Coordinator
|
PACS/Clinical
Coordinator
|
Imaging
Director and RIS/PACS
|
PACS/RIS/PowerScribe
Admin.
|
Imaging
Informatics Administrator
|
Radiology
Systems Coordinator
|
Imaging
Informatics Manager
|
Regional
PACS Analyst
|
Imaging
Supervisor
|
RIS/PACS
Admin
|
Imaging
Systems Administrator
|
RIS/PACS
Coordinator
|
Information
Systems Support Services
|
Sr. System Anal. for Im. Informatics
|
Manager
of Radiology Information Systems
|
Telemedicine
Administrator
|
Let’s first explore a little
of the evolution of this career. I suggest breaking down the evolution in
periods of 5 years:
- Early
childhood (pre-2000)
The period from 1995-2000
marks the emergence of the PACS SA as a career as many departments began
assigning dedicated resources to support the PACS. Many systems had a very
experienced dedicated PACS service and support person, often fulltime or, if
not, a part-time or contract person present at a site. The tools for fixing
studies, reports, and performing any troubleshooting were crude and it took a
lot of time and effort to support a PACS system. You had to know about DICOM as
it often required looking at dump or log files and there was a high dependence
on vendors for support.
- Teenage
years (2000-2005)
This era was characterized
by the commoditization of PACS. It required more tools to support them, many
more vendors had to be trained and, unfortunately, their knowledge levels
decreased. This was another reason for providers to upgrade the education of
their SA’s. More educated and trained the support, however, greatly depended on
in-house resources. Another advance during this period, in terms of defining
the PACS SA career, was the creation of certification organizations, i.e. ABII
and PARCA, in conjunction with efforts to create more or less formal job
descriptions (see post for a sample). At the same time, HIPAA became a
requirement during this period, which brought additional requirements and
corresponding job duties and functions.
- Reaching
maturity (2005-2010)
As PACS systems got more
sophisticated and configurable, the need for easy-to-use tools for fixing
studies, setting up hanging protocols, creating reports and looking at audit
trails became a necessity and available. The careers of “PACS assistants” or
“associates” were created. These are super-users who work as technologists but
can fix studies, merge them, set up and change simple configurations. Also,
tech savvy file room personal were being trained to import and export CD’s in a
manner that would not jeopardize system integrity. PACS SA’s were able to work
on project management, define and implement institution-wide PACS policies and
procedures, including critical down time procedures and reliable back-ups.
- Middle
age (2010-2015)
The PACS SA career is
reaching a period past maturity. As of 2012, there are an estimated 2,000
certified PACS SA’s, about equally divided between the ABII CIIP and PARCA
organization. As a matter of fact, it is time to re-evaluate the certification
requirements and create growth beyond the basic certification in the form of an
enterprise certification for those professionals that elect that particular
growth path. Tools are now rather sophisticated for the support of PACS
systems. Remote access allows SA’s to manage systems in multiple locations, and
PACS issues are being expanded along with open source tools such as DICOM
sniffers and validators that are readily available to troubleshoot even the
most tricky problems (see for example on how to use a DICOM sniffer). PACS SA’s
are getting very involved with migrating issues for new upgrades, PACS
replacements, or VNA and/or cloud solutions for archiving the images, and they
are educating themselves about Meaningful Use criteria to get on the EMR
incentives bandwagon.
- Ready
to retire? (post 2015)
I don’t believe that the
PACS SA career will become obsolete, but rather it will grow into a role that
includes more components of training, project management, planning and
coordination. Images are going to be not only available within the enterprise
but cross-enterprises through new protocols defined by IHE, which allows images
to be exchanged between radiologists referring physicians, specialists, and in
some cases, they might be managed by patients through their own Personal Health
Records. Imagine the issues that came along with the exchange of images using
CD’s, these issues will be multiplied exponentially when the number of images
being exchanged increases more than tenfold, all electronically. Bringing up the appropriate prior studies for
a comparison is already a challenge within a single enterprise; imagine this
enterprise becoming a regional health information exchange. I think you get the
picture (no pun intended). I do believe that the trend of bringing the SA job
under IT will continue, even if not from a functional standpoint, then at least
from a hierarchical perspective.
In conclusion, I don’t think
that the PACS SA career will become obsolete in the foreseeable future, but
will continue to evolve. However, independent of the PACS SA career, you might
want to explore other opportunities as will be outlined in future segments
of this series where we will explore the
career paths on the provider side, consultant and vendor sides as well.
