PACS Storage Server Development - The LEADTOOLS Way

Introduction

Developing a Picture Archival and Communication System (PACS) is not a task one takes lightly. Nor is it a project completed quickly because of the complex DICOM Specifications, government regulations, and security requirements for protecting medical records. LEADTOOLS changes all of that with its new PACS Storage Server application which can provide developers with a market-ready PACS in just a few days.

LEAD Technologies is always finding new ways to turn complex application development tasks into simple, expedient and profitable projects. The LEADTOOLS PACS Storage Server application is a fully functional, OEM-ready application with source code. That’s right, LEAD is giving developers 100,000 lines of source code using its award winning medical imaging technology to give you a jump start on developing a robust, secure and DICOM compliant PACS Storage Server. You can customize and modify it to suit your specific needs or simply brand it with your logo and start shipping.

Key Features of the PACS Storage Server

• Simple and easily customizable user interface
• Advanced logging with export and filtering features
• Patient Updater to move, merge and update patient information using DICOM communications
• Auto-Copy feature to route retrieved DICOM image data to multiple storage locations
• Gateway feature that acts as a query/retrieve proxy, automatically relaying a single message to any number of external DICOM servers
• Forwarding DICOM image data to another PACS server immediately upon storage or on a custom schedule
• Handles simultaneous TCP/IP client connections with encrypted security
• Administrative options including setting permissions for both users and AE titles

PACS Storage Server Customization

LEADTOOLS PACS technology is currently used in hundreds of medical institutions world-wide. The tedious work of implementing DICOM compliance, handling TCP/IP communication and designing the databases necessary for a PACS has already been done for you. After changing the titles of a few forms, replacing images (icons, splash screen, etc.) and recompiling, you have a product that is ready to sell in a matter of days or even hours.

In addition to the user interface, some customers may have an existing database they must use. The PACS Storage Server includes interfaces and examples for creating your own Data Access Layer (DAL). This feature not only makes it easy to customize the application for your requirements, but also broadens your potential customer base by guaranteeing that your PACS is flexible enough to integrate with more rigid installations. Instead of replacing an existing system, you can write a custom DAL and offer your client a more cost-effective and data-migration friendly PACS upgrade.

Advanced Real-World Features

LEAD Technologies has relationships with many hospitals and practices which provide valuable insight into what end-users want in a PACS Storage Server. The Gateway, Forwarding, Auto-Copy and Patient Updater Add-ins offer particularly useful enhancements to the end-user experience.

Gateway

PACS are rarely stand-alone entities, especially within a hospital or network of practices. Each department or modality often has its own storage server, database and security. Furthermore, there can be any number of clients that require communication with these external PACS. A gateway simplifies this setup by providing a single communication point with an external PACS. Therefore, only the gateway needs to be configured for new clients and the external PACS configuration can be left unchanged.

Forwarding

The Forwarding feature provides configuration options that aid in the storage, archival and organization of DICOM data sets on the PACS Storage Server. Upon receipt of DICOM images, the Storage Server can copy or move those images to another PACS either immediately or based on a schedule. Scheduling options include a specific date range and how often the forwarding procedure will run. Additionally, clean-up options exist to immediately delete images after forwarding or can be scheduled for cleanup at a later date to ensure only the latest data is stored on your PACS Storage Server.

Auto-Copy

The Auto-Copy feature improves the collaboration and referral processes in place at many medical institutions. The PACS Storage Server can be configured so that any incoming DICOM image data from a specific AE title is automatically copied to any number of PACS servers. Therefore, if multiple doctors are working with the same patient but do not share the same PACS server, any images stored by one doctor are auto-copied to each external PACS configured for his AE title.

Patient Updater

The large volume of patients and use of manual data entry leaves plenty of room for human error and typos, resulting in a need for simple patient data management. The Patient Updater utilizes a DICOM N-Action request to move, merge, update and synchronize patient information across multiple related storage servers through a central system.

SDK Products that Include the PACS Storage Server

• LEADTOOLS PACS Imaging
• LEADTOOLS Medical Imaging Suite

Conclusion

LEADTOOLS provides developers with access to the world’s best performing and most stable imaging libraries in an easy-to-use, high-level programming interface enabling rapid development of business-critical applications.

PACS is only one of the many technologies LEADTOOLS has to offer. For more information on our other products, be sure to visit our home page, download a free fully functioning evaluation SDK, and take advantage of our free technical support during your evaluation.

Download the PACS Storage Server Application

The PACS Storage Server application is included with the main LEADTOOLS 17.5 installation. To compile and run this application you will need the following:

• LEADTOOLS free 60 day evaluation
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 or later

Support

Need help getting this sample up and going? Contact our support team for free technical support! For pricing or licensing questions, you can contact our sales team (sales@leadtools.com) or call us at 704-332-5532.

About LEADTOOLS

LEAD Technologies has been the prominent provider of digital imaging tools since 1990. Its award-winning LEADTOOLS family of toolkits helps developers integrate raster, document, medical, multimedia, vector and Internet imaging into their applications quickly and easily. Using LEADTOOLS for your imaging requirements allows you to spend more time on user interface and application-specific code, expediting your development cycle and increasing your return on investment.