ORIGINAL PAPER An Evaluation Protocol for Picture Archiving and Communication System: a Systematic Review Mohsen S. Tabatabaei1, ABSTRACT Mostafa Langarizadeh1, Introduction: Picture archiving and communication system (PACS) serves to store, transmit, communi- Kamran Tavakol2 cate and manage medical images. A logical evaluation protocol assists to determine whether the system is technically, structurally and operationally fit. The purpose of this systematic review was to propose a 1Department of Health Information logical evaluation protocol for PACS, particularly useful for new hospitals and other healthcare institutions Management, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of in developing countries. Methods and Materials: We systematically reviewed 25 out of 267 full-length Medical Sciences. Tehran, Iran articles, published between 2000 and 2017, retrieved from four sources: Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed 2School of Medicine, University of Maryland and Google Scholar. The extracted data were tabulated and reviewed successively by three independent Baltimore. Baltimore, MD, USA panels of experts that oversaw the design of this study and the process by which the PACS evaluation protocol was systematically developed. Results: The outcome data were ranked by expert panels and Corresponding author: Mohsen S. Tabatabaei, Tel: +98-990-188-0720. E-mail:
[email protected] analyzed statistically, with the reliability established at 0.82 based on the Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The essential components and the best options to establish an optimal PACS were organized under nine main sections: system configuration; system network; data storage; data compression; image input; image doi: 10.5455/aim.2017.25.250-253 characteristics; image presentation; communication link; and system security, with a total of 20 compo- ACTA INFORM MED.