title: Developing a multi-institutional PACS archive and designing processes to manage the shift from a film to a digital-based archive.
abstract: The Quality Assurance Review Center (QARC) works to improve the standards of care in treating cancer by improving the quality of clinical trials medicine. QARC operates as a data management and review center providing quality assurance services for multiple external groups including cooperative groups and pharmaceutical companies. As the medical world migrates from analog film to digital files, QARC has developed an innovative and unique digital imaging management system to accommodate this trend. As QARC acquires electronic data from institutions across six continents, the system is continually developed to accommodate Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) imaging originating from a wide variety of Picture Archival and Communications System (PACS) manufacturers, thus creating one of the largest and most diverse multi-institutional imaging archives in the cancer research community.
authors.affiliation: UMASS Medical School, Quality Assurance Review Center, Providence, RI 02903-1025, USA. dicommunicator@qarc.org
authors.forename: Nicole K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Laprise
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hanusik
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Fitzgerald
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rosen
authors.forename: Keith S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003628:Database Management Systems; D019992:Databases as Topic; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D007391:International Cooperation; D009096:Multi-Institutional Systems; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D011873:Radiology Information Systems; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface