One of the most useful tools in today’s radiology rooms is a simple, everyday technology: a CD burner.

CD burners are, basically, printers. Most imaging centers appreciate their cost-effective ability to replace expensive and time-consuming film. Others use CDs as marketing and teaching tools, as well as inexpensive archiving systems.

DICOM CD BURNING SYSTEMS

CD burning systems for radiology are a bit more complex than the one on a home computer. A typical setup consists of:

  • PC networked to one or more modalities, the PACS archive, and/or one or more workstations.
  • CD burner
  • robotic arm to physically move the CDs from one burning step to another
  • thermal printer that puts a custom image on the “face” of the CD
  • CD supply carousel
  • software that allows the CD burning system to retrieve DICOM images and results from a modality or PACS archive
  • “viewer” utility that is burned onto the CD, allowing users to view and manipulate images.

COST SAVINGS ARE A BIG DRIVER

A primary reason for using DICOM CD burners is cost efficiency, says Mike Haman, RIS/PACS coordinator for Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif.

“A typical CT today can produce up to 2,000 images,” he says. “That means a $500 CT exam can use up $300 worth of film. I can take that same exam and burn it on a 28-cent CD. Our CD burner saves us millions per year.”

CDs AS STORAGE MEDIA

CDs make efficient storage media for clinics and small imaging centers that do not archive images on a PACS.

Rebecca Robe, MRI technician for Central Wisconsin Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Clinic, Berlin, says her rural clinic is too small for a PACS investment to be cost-effective. Instead of purchasing a thermal camera to print film, her clinic recently bought a DICOM CD burner.

“For us, a full PACS isn’t an alternative,”she says. “Our CD burner system is our only storage and printing system. We burn one CD to stay with the patient chart and a second CD for the referring physician or to send with the patient for a second opinion. The burner keeps the study in its database for 30 days, so if the patient loses the CD, we can just click on that study and burn another one.”

Robe says the particular CD burner her clinic uses also has the capability of acting as an “information manager,” routing studies from their modalities to a reading service over a network. She currently is looking into using the CD burner as a way to conform with HIPAA requirements for backing up imaging data off-site, either via CDs or by using the burner system to reroute studies for off-site storage.

Haman at Loma Linda agrees with Robe that CDs are more convenient and cost-effective than film. “Film takes up a lot of space and a lot of time,” he says. “A radiation technologist can take several hours to print a 5,000-image study from a PACS and that film will weigh five pounds. With a CD burner, that same tech can download and burn a 28-cent CD with a mailing weight of 1.5 ounces. That’s a huge savings in time, shipping costs, and storage.”

CDs FOR MARKETING

One advantage to DICOM CD burner systems is their ability to use a thermal printer to burn the imaging center or institution’s logo and other marketing message (as well as DICOM information) right onto the face of the CD.

Some CD burner software even allows the clinic or institution to create a customized “splash screen” with the institution’s name and logo that appears when the physician or patient loads the CD onto a computer.

A CD with one patient’s study or full history can be given to the appropriate referring physician, or, if the physician refers many patients, one CD can be loaded up with studies for several patients.

Customized CDs also can be given to patients with images of their study, allowing them to share the images with family and friends at home. This can be helpful in helping family members understand the nature of the patient’s injuries. The customized CD also can become a kind of “souvenir” of the patient’s imaging experience, the kind of memento with which a teenage boy might delight in showing off his broken tibia to fellow teammates on the football squad.

Whether for physicians or patients, the ability to professionally burn an image onto the CD’s face and provide a splash screen turns blank storage media into effective marketing tools.

CDs FOR MEDICINE

While proponents of DICOM CD burners appreciate their advantages for storage media and marketing, most agree the most important advantages are in providing better medicine.

For teaching hospitals, a major benefit of CD burners is that the software provided with the system typically allows them to use a simple “check-the-box” feature that strips patient identifiers out of the DICOM images, effectively allowing hospitals to address HIPAA compliance when using images for teaching purposes.

Haman warns, however, that not all CD burner systems are as thorough as they need to be in stripping patient IDs. “DICOM objects are in two parts: pixels and textual records,” he says. “Some systems require an extra step or two to make sure all identifiers are out.”

He believes there is no question that DICOM CD burners enable Loma Linda to provide better patient care.

“If we’re transferring a patient in critical condition that has been with us for a long stay to another facility, we might need to transfer hundreds of images with the patient,” he says. “To print that much film can take hours. With a CD burner, we can do it in less than a minute, making sure there is no delay in getting those vital images to wherever the patient is going.”

Haman hopes that someday all hospitals will be networked in ways that will allow for instantaneous transfer of imaging data, but in today’s world, he is pleased with the benefits of CDs.

“If you need to transfer images and results now,” he says, “DICOM CD burners are an easy, cost-effective solution.”

Tamara Greenleaf is a contributing writer for Decisions in Axis Imaging News.