Eastman Kodak Company demonstrated enhancements to its CARESTREAM Radiology Solutions platform, including productivity-enhancing features and tools that serve entry-level users as well as large healthcare systems and regional organizations. These new features were shown as a works-in-progress at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

KODAK CARESTREAM Radiology Solutions include KODAK CARESTREAM PACS (picture archiving and communications system) and KODAK CARESTREAM RIS (radiology information system). CARESTREAM Radiology Solutions provide a comprehensive architecture that addresses the operational needs of clinics, imaging centers, hospitals and healthcare networks, including orthopaedic, mammography and oncology facilities.

"Kodak's newest PACS platform will support workflow Grid computing, which facilitates storage and retrieval of information throughout an enterprise with a shared infrastructure that can serve multiple sites throughout a city or region," said Michael W. Jackman, general manager, Healthcare Information Solutions, and vice president, Eastman Kodak Company.

Workflow Grid computing will increase the availability and redundancy of a multi-site system. It also provides efficient management of distributed storage systems and delivery of archived data to any review location.

This workflow Grid technology can provide synchronized global worklist and reporting to all sites, while allowing each site to operate independently of the network or centralized server when necessary. Business continuity is expedited by supporting access from a secondary data center if the primary data center experiences equipment failure or a natural disaster. Cost efficiencies can be achieved through the sharing of storage resources, with flexible allocation that can be adjusted to match the changing needs of each facility.

Kodak's current version of CARESTREAM PACS software offers a virtual desktop environment that allows any application, including 3D processing, to be delivered to any desktop inside or outside the organization.

The latest PACS software upgrade is designed to enhance the effectiveness of Kodak's virtual desktop with the following new features:

• Dynamic streaming capabilities aim to reduce the need for large bandwidth network connections, even for viewing of 3D, cardiac CT and other extremely large image files. As a result, healthcare facilities can streamline the delivery of radiology reports through the use of off-site radiologists and specialists. Streaming is a data transfer technology that allows users to view the first images in a study as the rest of the images are being transmitted.

• Optional digital dictation, speech recognition and reporting functions for facilities that do not have integrated radiology information systems.

Kodak also announced that it is working to incorporate the following capabilities as part of its CARESTREAM Radiology Solutions platform:

• A user-friendly dashboard that will allow PACS administrators and users at any location to monitor workload status and modify it to meet current needs.
  

• Ability to view PET/CT and CT volume matching as native applications. Doctors will be able to conduct full processing and diagnosis for PET/CT studies on any PACS workstation, alleviating the need for a dedicated workstation for this purpose. Integration of the CT volume matching (registration) application will speed up the comparison of past and present volumetric CT data during the reading process.