Upgrading to a New PACS System | What to Expect

As you have probably experienced in your personal life, computers do not last forever. Furthermore, with upgrades in software systems, over time you might not be able to perform even basic procedures on the computer without updating the software. So does this scenario apply in the medical field. Eventually, your hospital or medical clinic’s PACS system will need to be upgraded or replaced, and you will need to transfer old data into a new system. 

How to do that effectively can be challenging, but by keeping a few suggestions in mind, your migration to a new PACS from Dicom Solutions will go much smoother.

Like any type of computer and its software, PACS systems are not eternal. They will need to be upgraded every five or more years. Because this is so, you will want to consider data migration long before you need to act on it. Preventing potential headaches with the process along the way.

Pick Your PACS System Correctly 

You have a range of options available on the spectrum of data migration. At the low cost end, you might choose to do the work yourself. Because it takes a great deal of time to perform the task, this may not be a workable option. At the high cost end, you might hire a specialized technology consultant to handle the entire data transfer for you. This is the easiest way to get the work done, but is rather costly.

Somewhere in between these two options is to work with the new and old data vendors to come to a beneficial solution to the problem of data migration. Some software is proprietary in terms of control features used. This is when headaches occur in the transfer of data, because if your new system does not have access to the information it needs from the old system, the data transfer will not occur, or will partially occur.

Because you know going in to digital imaging and communications that at some point in the future you will need to upgrade and migrate data between PACS systems. You will want to get your original vendor to agree to helping you with data migration, should you change systems in the future at the beginning of your relationship with the vendor. This saves a great deal of trouble down the road.

Picking the Right PACS Provider

You will also want to consider the vendor you choose for your new PACS. Preferably, you will want to select a company that has experience with your current system. In this way, they can be a great help in making the transition of data between the two systems as smooth as possible. Getting input from everyone who will be using the system in advance of purchase is also wise planning. In this way, you can experiment with the new software and see which ones best meet everyone’s needs at the price you wish to pay.

Dicom Solutions offers a wide array of different PACS and mini-PACS systems, and is ready to help you when you need to find the best solutions for PACS migration.