Eight years ago, Brian Frohna, MD, radiologist in charge of information technology for Valley Radiologists of Phoenix, Arizona, had an important decision to make. With no previous IT experience, he had to choose a PACS for his group practice, which provides professional services to two hospitals, manages nine outpatient facilities, and handles more than 250,000 outpatient studies annually.
Dr. Frohna needed to do some research, so he went to RSNA to test different vendors' systems. “I kept thinking ‘How would I have designed a PACS system?’” he recalled. He wanted to be sure that he chose a PACS that was intuitive, powerful, and stable.
It was of paramount importance that the system wouldn’t crash, so he tried to disrupt the systems on display at RSNA. “Physicians generally aren’t very patient, so if they’re instructed to click once and nothing happens right away, they will continue to click until the system freezes or crashes,” Dr. Frohna said.
After successfully crashing almost every PACS system besides iSite PACS at RSNA, he decided to go with the Philips system. “It was the most stable and most intuitive system,” Dr. Frohna said. “And it’s still true today.” Valley Radiologists went 100 percent digital with iSite PACS two years ago.
Dr. Frohna and his team recently considered switching to a different PACS to align with the systems in use at the hospitals they serve. But they decided that aligning Valley Radiologists’ PACS with the hospitals' systems would be more expensive and “not as elegant a solution” as renewing with iSite PACS.
As a result, Valley Radiologists decided to renew their contract with Philips for another five years.
The radiologists are also looking forward to the new clinical applications for iSite PACS--Pulmonary Embolism, Vessel Explorer and CT Colonography. "The new applications appeal to us because they will be integrated into the iSite PACS workstation,” Dr. Frohna said, allowing for a more flexible workflow.