One of the major stumbling blocks for effective
communication among PACS professionals is knowing how to speak each other’s
language. Each profession has its own lingo, set of abbreviations and acronyms,
and it is even be worse among the professionals who are involved with a
healthcare imaging and IT system such as a Picture Archiving and Communication
System (PACS): it is as of each discipline talks a different foreign language.
For example, the network engineers speak about setting up their
VLAN to support the new system using DHCP to assign IP addresses to the
devices, the interface specialists talk about needing an HL7 “O01” order
message to map the Accession Number into the Filler order number (OBR.3), the
service engineers need an AE-Title and port number to sAet up their new
modality, the PACS engineer needs the specification of the SOP Class UID to add
the new, enhanced breast tomo-synthesis image type to the configuration list at
the PACS image manager, and the PACS administrator needs to know the DICOM
attribute tags for the Ultrasound measurements in the Structured report to map
into the voice recognition software. In addition, the project manager need to
specify the requirements of the metadata to be stored in the VNA and review the
IHE profile statements to make sure it complies with the XDS and PIX/PDQ
protocol to interface with the regional Health Information Exchange to share
images.
If all of this sounds familiar, you are likely speaking the
right language, but if not, you might want to take a language class on how to
speak and understand PACS, DICOM, HL7 and IHE so you can effectively
communicate with other professionals to resolve any issues that might arise.
Remember, it is much more useful to communicate with a vendor in a precise,
detailed manner than just say “the PACS is down” or “the images don’t make it”.
In order to
learn the PACS language, there are several options depending on the individual
learning preferences. Research has identified 4 different learning types, these
learning styles are found within educational theorist Neil Fleming’s VARK model of Student Learning. VARK is an
acronym that refers to Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing Preference, and
Kinesthetic. In other words, some people have to “see it”, some have to “hear
it”, some have to see and/or write down the words and others have “to do” it,
i.e. need hands-on. In practice, I actually think that a blended learning
environment is the best, i.e. to see and hear, write down a synopsis and make
notes as well as do some practice.
Getting back to learning the PACS language, you can read
text books on PACS, DICOM and HL7, take a core class, for example, on-line,
and/or take a hands-on seminar or do extensive practice after a class, all
while taking copious notes when following the training. As a matter of fact,
you might want to check the schedule for the end of July as we have 4 on-line
core classes on PACS, DICOM, HL7 and IHE coming up. Hope to see you in July
(virtually) and allow me to improve your PACS language!
