Archiving Program Provides Comprehensive Mammography Active Archiving

An advanced Total Archiving Program (TAP) for mammography enables immediate elimination of a site's hardcopy file room and complete conversion to filmless workflow.

Sourcecorp TAP (Louisville, KY, USA) now provides the services and information technology (IT) infrastructure that support large mammography datasets, enabling a site that has converted to digital to eliminate onsite hardcopy storage of their prior analog exams.

An easy-to-implement, turnkey solution, Sourcecorp TAP stores a site's complete library of hardcopy patient priors in the expansive TAP operations center for as-needed conversion to digital format. TAP eliminates the complexities of relying on a dual-format archive without the high costs of scanning every film. It also eliminates the expense and operational demands of maintaining a cumbersome file room, freeing up staff time and valuable storage space.

As part of the program, TAP works with a site to inventory and transport all existing patient image files to its operations center. Clients are provided an audited electronic database listing key demographics of all patient jackets in TAP storage. Within minutes of client request 24/7, TAP operations staff scans the study, converting it to digital format for lossless transmission to the site over a secure virtual private network (VPN). For modalities other than mammography, exams are requested by the imaging site through Sourcecorp's secure, encrypted web portal. For mammography, when a patient exam is scheduled, a request for relevant priors is automatically communicated to the TAP operations center over the VPN using modality worklist information.

The TAP system also is able to access full patient Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) data from the mammography modality worklist to send to the site with the digital image files. These data are available in the latest DICOM MG format with full-field mammography hanging protocols. Aging files are purged for clients based on statutory retention times and industry standards.

"We are pleased to offer this service for one of today's fastest growing modalities, full-field digital mammography,” said Stanley Burch, vice president and general manager of Sourcecorp Radiology, Inc. "The complexity of maintaining and comparing images in a combination of analog and digital formats is difficult for most facilities, particularly in mammography. Dual-format archiving impedes workflow and may even affect the quality of exam interpretation. Our new TAP Mammography Active Archive Program overcomes these problems with an extremely cost-effective and reliable solution.”

TAP Mammography Active Archive Program uses state-of-the-art Vidar Cad Pro Advantage film digitizers, which are specifically designed for mammography. Vidar Systems Corp. (Alleroed, Denmark) is a developer high-quality medical film digitizers for medical applications.

Mr. Burch noted that TAP for Mammography also partners with the U.S. National Digital Medical Archive, Inc. (NDMA; Berwyn, PA, USA), which provides advanced technology that compresses scanned exams at the TAP operations center before they are sent over the VPN and decompresses them as they arrive at the imaging site. As part of a turnkey TAP solution, NDMA also will provide primary archiving services of all digital mammography exams at its secure data center, if desired. Mr. Burch reported that the new TAP Mammography Active Archive Program allows sites to reap the full benefits of their conversion to full-field digital mammography only days after they sign up for the program.


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