36 PART I Healthcare Content Management: The Holistic View on Medical Data
In cases where these tasks are well performed by an existing PACS, images can initially
remain there for a transitional period. This allows you to devote your energy
fully to document management in the HCM system. However, there are also
scenarios in which it is advisable to use an HCM system for images very early on.
This is the case if:
✔✔Several PACS are available in a health institution; for example, at several
locations or in different departments. Consolidation should then take place
as quickly as possible.
✔✔The image distribution or the archiving is not satisfactorily solved.
✔✔The PACS is supposed to be replaced anyway. If so, seize the opportunity
and move image distribution and archiving directly to an HCM system.
Here you have direct access to all functionalities, in particular the multimodal
view of data.
Information systems or clinical subsystems
If you don’t want to alienate the medical specialists in the various departments
(and who would want that?!), you should leave the specialized clinical systems
untouched. These provide sophisticated functions that no other system can substitute,
such as ECG management in cardiology, and are often indispensable for
addressing clinical needs. Many of these specialized or sub-systems also allow
archiving or distribution of generated data. Ideally, however, the HCM system
should handle archiving and distribution so that the data can be consolidated
on a case-by-case and/or patient-related basis. So subsystems and HCM systems
work hand in hand.