Podiatry offices find many uses for Dicom imaging solutions. Dicom refers to Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine, and it is a digital imaging format used throughout the medical profession. When applied to Podiatry practices, you will find that you can send and receive, view, store and capture podiatry digital x-ray medical images cost effectively and efficiently.
Podiatry CR and Podiatry DR units allow you to capture digital images. You can use a CR system to retrofit any film radiology equipment that you already have, thereby making the transition to digital imaging much more affordable. The digital image quality you get with CR and DR units is excellent, and there are systems available for use in a mobile environment.
The foremost logical prerequisite of a rigid classification is that a mental item belong to no more than one category. Such either/or logic presupposes a digital mode of thinking, which, unlike its analog counterpart, does not tolerate any “gray” shadings among mental fields. “digital thinking” has a staccato character somewhat evocative of the on/off nature of the conventional light switch or the convulsive progression of time on digital clocks, in marked contradistinction to the smooth, legato style of the dimmer or the traditional analog clock.
—Eviatar Zerubavel, U. S. sociologist, educator. The Fine Line: Making Distinctions in Everyday Life, ch. 3, University of Chicago Press (1991)
You can then view your digital podiatry images at a workstation. Diagnostic monitors and Dicom viewers are available that allow you to edit the images and enhance them according to your specifications, leading to better patient care as a result.
Podiatry PACS systems can then be loaded onto a workstation to offer even more functionality. With a PACS in place, you can send and receive digital images in Dicom format. If you choose to install a web-based PACS, you can then distribute your digital images online. This allows for ease of consultations with physicians located anywhere. There are mini PACS systems available that can be scaled for use in small and mid-sized medical offices. Full PACS units give you flexible options for managing your digital images. Archiving of patient records in compliance with HIPPA rules is enabled through the use of PACS, both for information security as well as disaster recovery. You can also create simple storage of digital images onto CD or DVD through the use of a CD burner. Patient records may be accessed simultaneously by authorized personnel, making the system more convenient to use. A PACS system can also be used in conjunction with an RIS and Billing component. This will allow you to digitize text documents, such as patient records, into Dicom format. This way the records can be stored along with the digital images, making it more convenient to use as well as providing better patient care. Scheduling and reporting can also happen when RIS is added to your PACS system.
A computer does not think, it feels nothing, and what it is said to “know”—bits of information all cast in the digital mode—has no fringe. Nor has it a memory, only storage room. On any point called for, the answer is all or none. Vagueness, intelligent confusion, original punning on words or ideas never occur, the internal hookups being unchangeable; they were determined once for all by the true minds that made the machine and program. When plugged in, the least elaborate computer can be relied on to work to the fullest extent of its capacity; the greatest mind cannot be relied on for the simplest thing; its variability is its superiority.
—Jacques Barzun (b. 1907)
In short, there are a host of Dicom solutions appropriate for Podiatry practices. Contact a medical imaging distributor for more information about the podiatry options.
Jonathan Blocker writes about--podiatry pacs and the podiatry digital x-ray.