title: Online availability check of teleradiology components.
abstract: For a region-wide teleradiology network in Germany a vendor-independent Uptime-server concept was defined. The Uptime-server was realized for the availability check and prospective error-detection of the emergency teleradiology servers and clients based on encrypted digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM)-e-mail transfers. The concept and the experiences of 2 years of use with more than 30 clients and servers in 15 hospitals and in nine other regional partners are shown. The Uptime-server does provide automated availability checks for all servers and clients, automated checks of the download speed of the Internet lines, and a graphical user interface for the clinical user and the system administrator. A clinical user can display the availability information from all clients and servers in the network (see http://www.teleradiologie-rnd.de). In case of malfunctions during an emergency transfer, immediate reactions are possible, often without the need for help of a hotline or a system administrator. The chosen Uptime-server concept proofed to be reliable; it worked with products from nine different manufacturers without problems. Its statistical output can be used to fulfill the legal requirements of regular availability checks for teleradiology lines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Radiology, University Hospital Mannheim, Theodor-Kutzer-Ufer 1-3, 68167 Mannheim, Germany. gerald.weisser@rad.ma.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Gerald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Weisser
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ruggiero
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Runa
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Düber
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Neff
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walz
mesh_terms: D003201:Computers; D034742:Electronic Mail; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D011873:Radiology Information Systems / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019112:Teleradiology; D014584:User-Computer Interface