Evolution of Large-Scale Filmless Full-PACS in Korea

Filmless full-PACS in korea has rapidly been growing, since government had supported collaborative PACS project between industry and university hospital in late of 1995. At the same time, a small company had started PACS business, while the Korea PACS society was being formed. In the beginning, PACS societies had focused on developing peripheral solutions such as DICOM gateway for image acquisition, x-ray film digitizer, and viewing software for research or management of personal image data, while Samsung Medical Center had started installing an imported partial PACS system which had recently upgraded with a new system. In similar time frame, a few hospitals had started developing and installing domestic large scale full-PACS system. Several years later, many hospitals have installed full-PACS system with national policy of reimbursement for PACS exams in November 1999. It is believed that Korea is the first country that adopted PACS reimbursement for filmless full-PACS as a national policy. Both experiences of full-PACS installation and national policy generated tremendous intellectual and technological expertise about PACS at all levels, clinical, hospital management, education, and industrial sectors. There are currently three types of PACS system which includes domestic, imported, and hybrid PACS system with imported solution for core system and domestic solution for peripheral system. There are more than 20 domestic PACS companies and they have now enough experiences so that they are capable of installing a truly full-PACS system for large-scale teaching hospitals. PACS societies in Korea understand how to design, implement, install, manage, sustain, and provide good services for large-scale full-PACS. PACS society has also strength for the highest integration technology of the Hospital Information. However, further understanding and timely implementation of continuously evolving international standard and integrated healthcare enterprise concepts may be necessary for international leading of PACS technologies for the future.