| Veterinary offices rely on Vet PACS to help them | | | | environment, with wheeled hand carts offering the |
| make the most of their digital medical imaging systems. | | | | ability to move them around quickly and easily. |
| Digital imagers take images and translate them into the | | | | Once your digital Veterinary X-ray imaging device has |
| dicom format, which is a medical digital imaging format | | | | taken an image, it can then be sent to your |
| similar to jpeg. Once digital images are in the dicom | | | | workstation that runs the PACS system. The PACS |
| format, they can then be sent, received, viewed or | | | | workstation will allow you to manipulate the digital |
| archived through the use of a PACS system, a | | | | medical images so that you can change the brightness, |
| software and hardware unit that runs on a personal | | | | contrast, zoom or highlight aspects of the digital image |
| computer. With this digital imaging equipment in place, | | | | to get a clearer view, which leads to better patient |
| you will spend less time on routine tasks and have a | | | | care as well. If the workstation has Internet service, |
| more efficient veterinary clinic. | | | | you can also email digital medical images to colleagues |
| The Vet digital X-ray system begins with the image | | | | for consultations, unlike film images that would need to |
| capture unit, and this may be either a Vet CR or Vet | | | | be sent through traditional mail. Dicom images may be |
| DR unit. A Vet DR system takes the highest resolution | | | | circulated via a secure local area network, wide area |
| digital medical images on the market today, and may | | | | network or virtual private network. After the initial |
| be used in a mobile imaging system as well. Vet CR | | | | viewing digital medical images may be stored in a |
| systems are less expensive than DR systems, and | | | | variety of ways. You can immediately make copies on |
| they enable you to retrofit your current film imaging | | | | a CD or DVD at your workstation, or you can send |
| hardware so that it will be able to also take digital | | | | digital images to a secure server for archiving. |
| images. CR systems also work very well in a mobile | | | | |