[The information management of a radiology department: the development of a new type of software for the archiving of alphanumeric data and images]

The authors report the main characteristics and the goals of the development of the RIS of the II Chair of the Institute of Radiology, La Sapienza University, Rome. The system was developed with a commercial software (4th Dimension), for use with an Ethernet network and Macintosh Apple computers. One of the main problems was to obtain a user-friendly system. The main options of our system are: booking, registration, exam execution, reporting, archives and statistics and system administration. The main characteristics of our RIS is that it allows important images to be archived in limited number and at low resolution. The aim is to use images for consultation and teaching purposes, not for diagnosis which is made on the original images. Low resolution images permit to use limited storage space. Image quality is very similar to that of the original images for the equipment connected on line with the RIS--i.e., US and MR units in our institute. Conventional radiographic and CT images are digitalized by two scanners with maximum resolution of 4k x 4k x 11 bits. To date, good results have been obtained. Our RIS has been used by the medical and non-medical staffs, without any particular instruction and has allowed us to organize and make faster department management and reporting.