"PACS" stands for "Picture Acquisition and Communication System". More generally, a pacs is a collection of software and hardware used to store medical images and to view medical images.
There are a few components that are common to all pacs systems;
- a database to store information about patients and exams
- a program to accept image storage requests from medical equipment (ultrasound, x-ray, MRI, CT etc)
- a program to provide patient information to the medical equipment
- hardware to store the images (disc drives)
- a program to view the images
- a network to connect the equipment and computers together
Note that all of these components must be working to use the pacs except (g) the internet interface.
In order for the pacs to be working all of these components must be working.
How to Diagnose Problems.