PACS — Picture Archiving and Communication System

What Is a PACS?

A PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) is a medical imaging technology used to acquire, store, manage, and distribute diagnostic images digitally. It replaces the legacy film-based workflow, enabling studies such as CT scans, MRIs, X-rays, and ultrasounds to be stored electronically and retrieved instantly by any authorized clinician across the hospital network.

A typical PACS comprises four core components: acquisition modalities (imaging equipment), a communication network, a storage server (or cloud archive), and display workstations (viewers). Through the DICOM standard, the system ensures that images remain interoperable across devices and manufacturers.

Why It Matters in Healthcare

Deploying a PACS transforms operational efficiency in any imaging center or radiology department. Key benefits include:

• Instant access: Radiologists and referring physicians can review studies from any point on the network, eliminating delays caused by physical film transport.
• Cost reduction: By removing the need for film printing and physical archive space, facilities achieve significant operational savings.
• Multidisciplinary collaboration: Teams across specialties—and even across campuses—can view the same study simultaneously, accelerating tumor boards, second opinions, and case conferences.
• Continuity of care: A patient's complete imaging history is centralized, making longitudinal comparison of studies straightforward.
• Teleradiology: A cloud-based PACS enables remote reading, which is critical for after-hours coverage and rural or underserved facilities.

Multi-Site PACS Workflow

In a healthcare network with multiple points of care, a PACS does far more than store images: it becomes the backbone that connects acquisition, interpretation, and result delivery across every facility. A properly implemented PACS workflow rests on four operational pillars.

• Multi-modality reception: The system receives and centralizes studies from every medical device—X-ray, CT, ultrasound, MRI—ensuring the integrity of DICOM files and their immediate availability to specialists, regardless of the site where the study was acquired.
• Worklist bridge: The worklist automatically sends each patient's demographics and study type to the modalities (equipment), eliminating manual transcription errors and guaranteeing that every image is correctly linked to the corresponding patient record.
• Role-based access control: Radiology technicians (acquire studies), radiologists (interpret and report), and referring physicians (view results) operate under differentiated permissions that safeguard medical data confidentiality and ensure full traceability of every interaction within the system.
• Remote visualization and reporting: Specialists access studies from optimized workstations or remotely, compare with prior exams, and generate reports with validation permissions and technical traceability for official delivery—all without depending on the professional's physical location.

How Davix Relates to PACS

The Davix PACS/RIS is a comprehensive solution that combines picture archiving with a radiology information system in a single cloud-native platform. Highlights include:

• Unlimited cloud storage with geographic redundancy.
• A web-based viewer featuring advanced measurement, annotation, and reconstruction tools.
• Native DICOM integration plus HL7 and FHIR support for seamless connectivity with HIS and LIS systems.
• Built-in teleradiology capabilities, allowing external radiologists to report studies securely from anywhere.

If your facility is looking to modernize its imaging workflow, reduce infrastructure costs, and shorten result turnaround times, the Davix PACS offers a proven path toward digital transformation in radiology.