The enterprise PACS marketplace can offer you many different routes to realize your PACS goals. The tricky part is navigating the market properly, identifying what features are must haves, which vendors have a successful track record, and what solutions offer the best fit for your needs. Lots of vendors offer similar features, but the details and implementation set each solution apart. Consider the car analogy—every car has a steering wheel, a dashboard and four wheels—but each and every car drives differently. You certainly would not put every car in the same category and the same holds true for PACS.

Most of the major PACS offerings include 80–90% of the same features in name alone. So while a PACS may include a certain feature, the actual implementation of the feature may be useless in clinical practice, or have very little "depth" in functionality. For example, referring physician access via a non-standard viewer; or embedded 3D that can't be saved; or CDs that don't include DICOM. This may be surprising, but it’s absolutely true: details matter and it's up to you to connect the dots. Yes, many PACS buyers wander for months, if not years, trying to figure it all out. But the business of radiology continues, the images keep coming and your decision is looming.

So rather than continue the journey on your own, GE Healthcare, Dynamic Imaging Solutions offers a free PACSMap to provide some much needed direction. Simply click on the PACSMap image to the right and you’ll be provided a set of PACS directions to help you sort through which details matter most. If you’d like a copy of the PACSMap in an alternate format to use for your upcoming Request for Proposal (RFP), please contact us and we’re happy to send a copy to you.