System Characteristics
The research findings were grouped into three categories: environmental characteristics, system characterisitics, and opportunities for reconceptualization and redesign. The following summarizes the system characteristic findings.
Customizability and Simplicity - There are a wide range of PACS users, from radiologists and technologists to secretaries and referring physicians. Each of these roles require different subsets of PACS functionality and tools; the tools and settings that are critical to one user’s workflow may interfere with other users.
Efficiency - PACS users are constantly juggling internal pressures from time-critical cases, growing worklists, complex technical systems, and maintaining focus through interruptions – all which disrupt their workflow and cause inefficiencies in their performance.
Custom Configurations - There are a wide variety of input devices available. Prior research has demonstrated that different radiologists will develop individual and idiosynchratic work patterns, and that PACS systems must allow for customization to support these practices.
Study Safety Nets - It is critically important that radiology departments not allow cases to fall through the cracks and not be diagnosed in a timely manner. Current worklist designs appear to be insufficient, in and of themselves, to ensure that this does not occur.
Visibility of Study State - Knowledge of study state is essential to mitigate potential problems, such as more than one user opening the same study for analysis or radiologists reading studies that had yet to be verified by technologists.