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Overcoming Challenges for Successful PACS Installation in Low-Resource Regions: Our Experience in Nigeria

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Abstract

In this paper, we walk you through our challenges, successes, and experience while participating in a Global Health Outreach Project at the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, Nigeria. The scope of the project was to install a Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS) to establish a centralized viewing network at UCH’s Radiology Department, for each of their digital modalities. Installing a PACS requires robust servers, the ability to retrieve and archive studies, ensuring workstations can view studies, and the configuration of imaging modalities to send studies. We anticipated that we might experience hurdles for each of these requirements, due to limited resources and without the availability to make a site visit prior to the start of the project. While we ultimately experienced delays and troubleshooting was required at each turn of the install, with the help of dedicated volunteers both on and off-site and the UCH staff, our shared goal was accomplished.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ambra Health, Google Cloud, and Tribalco for their contributions of donated software, hardware and technical resources for this project. We thank Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) for supporting the RAD-AID Informatics program and RAD-AID/SIIM Global Ambassador Program. We also extend our great thanks to the leadership, staff, and trainees at University College Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria, for their work and collaboration in this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Services, Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Ameena Elahi

  2. RAD-AID International, Chevy Chase, MD, USA

    Ameena Elahi, Farouk Dako, Dale A. Gerus, Alan Schweitzer & Daniel J. Mollura

  3. University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Farouk Dako & Omer Awan

  4. Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA

    Jonathan Zember

  5. University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Bunmi Ojetayo

Authors
  1. Ameena Elahi
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  2. Farouk Dako
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  3. Jonathan Zember
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  4. Bunmi Ojetayo
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  5. Dale A. Gerus
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  6. Alan Schweitzer
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  7. Daniel J. Mollura
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  8. Omer Awan
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Correspondence to Ameena Elahi.

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Elahi, A., Dako, F., Zember, J. et al. Overcoming Challenges for Successful PACS Installation in Low-Resource Regions: Our Experience in Nigeria. J Digit Imaging 33, 996–1001 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-020-00352-y

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