July 18, 2022

Why RIS PACS software cannot do AI

Kovey Kovalan

Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) was a technology that ushered in greater convenience and improved results in the field of Medical Imaging. It helped us move away from the times when medical images were preserved and transferred physically on film. RIS PACS Software popularity is due to the transition from films to digital files. With RIS PACS software came reduced space and cost for medical data storage. But every piece of technology has a life cycle which inevitably comes to an end with surrounding advancements. RIS PACS software is no different and its time has already come to an end.

Even though RIS PACS systems are devised to perform in critical conditions without any disruption but sometimes RIS PACS still fails. The technological abilities and performance requirements of the present age dictate more than what RIS PACS software can offer. What has caused this upheaval? And wherein lies the way forward?

Problems Unaddressed by RIS PACS

There is a up-to 50% incidence of misdiagnosis related to medical images in the USA according to independent publications by McKinsey, the Mayo Clinic, and The Journal of Clinical Oncology. About $27 billion per year is spent on imaging in the country is wasted and deemed unnecessary radiation to patients according to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute. Astonishingly it might well be true that more people are killed in the USA due to medical errors than in traffic accidents.

IT infrastructure includes a dedicated server room, temperature-controlled, updation, electricity costs, 24X7 Server maintenance, civil work etc. This drives up costs by a great deal and robs you of funds which could be utilized elsewhere. Therefore maintaining medical images on-site is becoming unfeasible as medical scans continue to grow and to meet statutory requirement for storage. One will just end up wasting resources while at the same time creating silos which hamper the seamless sharing of the data. Compatibility issues will also pop up as these data silos may in all likelihood hold data in different forms. As a result, access is impaired further and all stakeholders stand to lose.

While applications can enable technicians and physicians to move images over the internet, a number of other issues persist. The lack of an efficient approach for 3D visualization is one of the main concerns. Medical images are large and more complex. This leads to a need for a significant amount of bandwidth and time. Reading patient’s X-rays, MRI’s becomes more difficult because it requires high bandwidth.

The exercise of image compression may slow down your image transfers, and cause device overloads, common when you are dealing with high volumes. Imaging data losses can be persistent and overwhelming. These can occur even before the images reach the radiologists. Crucial diagnostic information is lost in the process and patients’ lives are compromised.

PACS is Uncapable of AI

RIS PACS software is a conventional technology that is both slow and unclear.

Slow because moving large size medical images over Internet while maintaining diagnostic quality is a high bandwidth and time-consuming proposition.

Unclear because storage, database and web servers lack computing power for AI or intuitive adaptive visualizations.

LifeVoxel’s Effective Solution

LifeVoxel has a cloud platform that addresses the deficiencies of existing cloud leaders as their cloud solutions are simply not suitable for medical imaging data. Limitations of bandwidth, latency and scalability are addressed in tune with the demands of the domain.

LifeVoxel shows how AI can be leveraged in medical imaging. Its Interactive Streaming and AI Platform for imaging using GPU cluster cloud computing have created a revolution. Advanced 2D and 3D diagnostic visualization of medical images and computer-aided detection of medical images using a genetic algorithm or convolution neural networks which are being employed get you the best results. These solutions dramatically reduce the incidence of human error.

LifeVoxel is emerging as a global leader in the field of medical imaging. It’s 12 international patents related to visualization and partial funding for Research & Development from the National Science Foundation are evidence for the effectiveness of its solutions. With regard to the incompetence of RIS PACS software in the present era, LifeVoxel’s solution is the perfect remedy.

Through a powerful combination of Artificial Intelligence and Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) with the cloud, LifeVoxel has created enhanced capabilities in visualization. This helps you cut cost remarkably while providing a storage infrastructure par excellence. Intuitive AI and better imaging results in an elimination of human error and lesser chances of misdiagnosis. Transfer of data over LifeVoxel’s cloud is efficient and hassle-free. Predictive Buffering is incorporated to give the best results to all stakeholders. Successfully predicting frames leads to zero-latency as there are no round trip to server to use predicted frames.

Compatibility is a non-issue with LifeVoxel’s solutions. Vendor Neutral Applications which are the key to replacing outdated RIS PACS software are made use of. The solutions allow data access across devices and applications. Here again, relieving the users of a major pain point.

RIS PACS systems have reached the end of their utility. ‘Perform or perish’ is the dictum that runs the world today. When solutions such as those by LifeVoxel provide about 50%+ savings in cost and 100X faster responses with top-notch technology, a system that appears inconvenient and plagued by related issues simply has to go. RIS PACS software has served us well, but fresh challenges just require better technology.

Where to now?

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