Download Importance of imaging techniques in the hospital

Students’ material
Medical Imaging – The Glass Patient
Importance of imaging techniques in the hospital
The most important imaging techniques – such as X-ray, CT, Nuclear Medicine, MRI and
Ultrasound – at a hospital are found at the Radiology Department. Besides this, there is also
microscopic imaging at the Histology and Pathology Departments, as well as endoscopy at
the Surgical Department.
To indicate the importance of medical imaging today, let us look at some numbers. One
third of all investments in a modern hospital is for imaging. For example, an 800-bed
hospital does about 160,000 radiological examinations per year. This results in roughly one
million digital images, which equal around 10 Terabyte/year. Therefore, hospitals need a
well-organised digital and networked image storage and distribution system: a Picture
Archiving and Communication System (PACS). That system needs to be coupled to the
Hospital Information System (HIS), the information nerve centre of a hospital. All patient
information is stored in this system. In larger hospitals over 2,000 computer terminals
provide access to this database. Today more than 80% of all hospitals is fully digital.
Figure 3 – A collection of modern imaging machines in use at the hospital. From left to right: Computed
Tomography, Nuclear Medicine and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Access to the images produced by these
machines is through a computer terminal.