HealthManagement, Volume 11 - Issue 4, 2011
The European Society of Radiology (ESR) has published a position paper on the "Usability of irreversible image compression in radiological imaging". This paper is the result of a groundbreaking Expert Panel Session, held prior to the Management in Radiology (MIR) Annual Scientific Congress last year in Mallorca.
Each year, a select number of experts in medical imaging management gather for the Annual Scientific Meeting of MIR, to discuss their professional challenges and solutions amongst a like-minded audience. This made the meeting an ideal ground for leaders in imaging IT to come together and develop and debate the different aspects of using image compression to relieve the pressure on the field of imaging in managing the data explosion that has followed increasing demand for scans by patients and referrers.
Following the Expert Panel Session, a number of key figures, including David Koff (Canada), Laurence Sutton (UK) and others presented their opinions during the MIR congress itself. The publication of this Position Paper is the latest area of development, and will be reinforced by a cover story on this topic during Issue V of IMAGING Management this year.
The ESR states that: "The usability of image compression has been a relevant topic in radiological image management for a long time. Despite some well-prepared recommendations by the national radiological societies in Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom, there are still different concerns by users and vendors about implementing such tools." The paper summarises the results of this process. It is focused on the use of "diagnostically acceptable irreversible compression" (DAIC).
The paper is of interest for radiologists, picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) administrators, researchers, vendors and imaging management service providers. Therefore, special background information and detailed technical information are also part of the paper, to present the best overview.
To attend the 2012 edition of the Management in Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting, or for more information, please visit www.mir-online.org, where you will find the programme and registration details. All those interested in the management aspects of their career in medical imaging are encouraged to take part. The Expert Panel on Image Compression in Palma de Mallorca in October 13, 2010 was kindly supported by Agfa Health- Care, Cerner Deutschland, GE Healthcare Information Technologies, Philips Healthcare, Siemens AG, Healthcare Sector and VISUS. The full scientific paper is available for download on www.myesr.org.
