Image Management System

Image Management Systems do more than organize and store digital images: Showing serial images to patients makes them active partners in their treatment

An image management system provides a way for medical practitioners to efficiently organize and store a large number of diagnostic images in a central location, which enables users in several locations to quickly and easily retrieve these images. While this is very convenient for doctors, this system also can provide another benefit in the form of patient education, which can result in better compliance with their individual medical therapy plans.

Dr. Krishna of Sabates Eye Centers in Kansas City, Missouri explains that he believes that when he uses his image management system to provide his patients with a visual display of the progression of the deterioration of their own eyes, they "...tend to appreciate the real-life consequences of optic nerve cupping and visual field defects when they can see these changes in their own eyes." He goes on to say that "When patients are confronted with the results of noncompliance, they might be more diligent about using their eye drops."

Best-in-Class Image Management System Producers Feature:

• Rapid and easy-to-use navigation capabilities so that button, keyboard and mouse operations can be used to scrollthrough images.
• Supports all common formats, for example, jpg, gif, png, tiff and others.
• Ability to resize, crop, recolor, convert and add notes to image files.
  

Top Considerations Before Buying Image Management System:

The most important considerable is what kinds of images your company deals with and how you use these images because different offerings have different strengths and features. For example, do you just want to archive your images or do you need to edit them also; do you want to search them by name or type of image, or by the day they were made; do you need to manipulate your images in three dimensions or will 2-D suffice?

Key Producers:

1. VirtualScopics’s software deals with the manipulation of MRI, PET, CT, Ultrasound, and X-Ray images during all the stages in the clinical trial lifecycle, from initiation through FDA submission to Phase IV. Its areas of expertise comprise oncology, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, neurology and cardiovascular studies. An interesting feature is the ability of their software algorithms to generate a three-dimensional model from separate MRI or CT images. A research initiative at the University of Rochester Medical Center and School of Engineering led to the founding of this Rochester, NY-based company in 2000.

2. ATM Tech Solutions’ software supports asset management, specifically by streamlining the process of tracking and inventorying company images, records and other assets. It offers customers a choice of data entry methods including: barcodes, radio frequency, imaging and biometric identification. ATM Tech Solutions reports that integration of its software applications Easy*Image, which is compatible with industry standard scanners and output storage devices, and MasterTrak, “provide(s) a complete records management solution of both imaged and non-imaged records”. This Houston, TX-headquartered company has been in business since 1984 and markets its software solutions worldwide.

3. VISIONx INC.’s core business is the development of software systems and specialized hardware components for a broad range of applications for machine vision, image analysis, visual inspection and general defect detection for the pharmaceutical,  medical device manufacturing, electronics and semiconductors industries, to name a few. This Pointe-Claire, Quebec-based company is able to customize its products for use by customers with one-of-a-kind requirements.

4. BioClinica was formed in 2008 when Bio-Imaging Technologies, Inc. acquired Phoenix Data Systems. This public Newtown, PA-based company offers integrated, technology-enhanced clinical trial management services. Its FDA-compliant Imaging Core Labs in the United States and Europe provides organizations around the world, like pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies and contract research organizations (CROs), with medical image management solutions for every stage of their clinical trial lifecycles, including imaging and data capture, collection, image quality control and processing of image data.

Image Management System
Definition: An Image Management System (IMS) is a software-driven management system for handling digital images.