Planning and implementing image delivery to outpatient specialty clinical practices in a large medical center.

Softcopy image viewing using web-based technologies has been deployed to 3 specialty outpatient practices - Lung Center, Neurosurgery, Orthopedic Surgery - where films remain available. Physicians and staff use Philips Easyweb (a web-based image browser) and BJC HealthCare ClinDesk (a Java-based electronic patient record) clients in patient examination rooms and physician workrooms to retrieve images from a Mitra image server. Practice-specific planning and training preceded deployment; on-site training and support came with deployment; on-site and telephone support are available as needed. Softcopy viewing generally is accepted although a few physicians continue to use films. The unavailability of studies performed before the introduction of the image server remains an issue until the server builds a suitable archive. Softcopy-based clinical-image viewing can be supported with web-based technologies, but effective practice-specific planning, training, and technical support are crucial to successful deployment to those accepting softcopy image viewing.