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Empirical Investigation of Radiologists’ Priorities for PACS Selection: An Analytical Hierarchy Process Approach

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Abstract

Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) are being widely adopted in radiology practice. The objective of this study was to find radiologists’ perspective on the relative importance of the required features when selecting or developing a PACS. Important features for PACS were identified based on the literature and consultation/interviews with radiologists. These features were categorized and organized into a logical hierarchy consisting of the main dimensions and sub-dimensions. An online survey was conducted to obtain data from 58 radiologists about their relative preferences. Analytical hierarchy process methodology was used to determine the relative priority weights for different dimensions along with the consistency of responses. System continuity and functionality was found to be the most important dimension, followed by system performance and architecture, user interface for workflow management, user interface for image manipulation, and display quality. Among the sub-dimensions, the top two features were: security, backup, and downtime prevention; and voice recognition, transcription, and reporting. Structured reporting was also given very high priority. The results point to the dimensions that can be critical discriminators between different PACS and highlight the importance of faster integration of the emerging developments in radiology into PACS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    Vivek Joshi

  2. Technology Management, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, South Korea

    Kyootai Lee

  3. Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, School of Medicine, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA

    David Melson & Vamsi R. Narra

Authors
  1. Vivek Joshi
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  2. Kyootai Lee
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  3. David Melson
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  4. Vamsi R. Narra
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vivek Joshi.

Appendix A: A Sample of Scales Used in the Survey (Showing Scales Used for Comparisons of the Relative Importance of Level 1 Dimensions)

Appendix A: A Sample of Scales Used in the Survey (Showing Scales Used for Comparisons of the Relative Importance of Level 1 Dimensions)

In this survey, your input is requested on the relative importance of different criteria in selecting a PACS. Please consider the following criteria and judge their relative importance by clicking between 1 and 11 as illustrated below.

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Joshi, V., Lee, K., Melson, D. et al. Empirical Investigation of Radiologists’ Priorities for PACS Selection: An Analytical Hierarchy Process Approach. J Digit Imaging 24, 700–708 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-010-9332-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-010-9332-3

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