The Vienna SMZO-PACS-project: the totally digital hospital.

This paper gives an overview of the SMZO-PACS-Project in the form of a rough specification of the system architecture and the functional parameters related to it. The PACS architecture, determined by the large amount of data volume produced in the SMZO Hospital is outlined. In both radiology and trauma departments high technical requirements concerning data throughout and fault tolerance are demanded. Therefore these PACS modules are designed to minimize the workload of the network so that the performance is not degraded in the case of fault of a single component. A PACS module includes image acquisition devices of a certain modality with related reporting workstations and a distributed electronic archive. The functionality of the modules is described, special interest is posed on the integration of the different information management systems PACS, RIS and HIS, to achieve a complete record of data input and throughput in the hospital.