Cave Machinis
(Source: Dalai's PACS Blog)
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - April 1, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
The Best Designs Of (For) Mice And Men
Of all the things you didn ' t know about me, perhaps the most irrelevant is the fact that I ' m a frustrated inventor. Periodically, I come up with ideas of things that should exist but don ' t, and in general they don ' t for some very good reason. I did once go so far as to retain a patent attorney to research one of my brilliant intellectual offspring. He found the same thing had been " discovered " and patented four times before. That knowledge cost me $500. Of course, one would search the U.S. Patent Database today with Google. How times have changed.TheAgfa Daily Blog Update recently linked to anarticle celebrating ...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - March 26, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Hello, (Friends of Doctor) Dolly!
I know many of you are landing here thanks to my daughter, Dr. Dolly. She was just published on KevinMD.com, and my celebratory post on Facebook labeled her a " chip off the old Doctor Dalai " . Thus, her friends are now discovering whatIdo in my spare time. Hopefully this won ' t reflect badly on Dolly. She is, after all, at the beginning of her career, and I ' m at the end of mine. We don ' t want potential employers, colleagues, administrators, scrub-nurses, or Uber-drivers to think she might turn out like me! (For privacy reasons, I ' m not linking back to KevinMD.)In some ways,I ' ve taken a page fromher book. While i...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - March 19, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Out Of Antarctica
I had intended to post from Antarctica itself, but time somehow gets away from you wile in a place like this. So, I ' m posting instead from the Scotia Sea en route to the Falklands.You might have heard of the Drake Passage between Ushuaia and the Antarctic. It is often windy and treacherous, and has become known to those with weak stomachs (such as yours truly) as the Drake Shake. Fortunately, we had one of the quieter rides, and so we refer to this area alternatively as the Drake Lake. (We ' ve had some rough seas here and there anyway, and I ' m trying to keep my meals from repatriating themselves to the outside world w...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - February 18, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Politicians and Penguins
My level of love for animals is mostly restricted to our two little fluff-balls at home, whose vet and kibble bills top the GDP of several small nations. Mrs. Dalai, however, LOVES animals, especially penguins. And so, when deciding where to go for our next big trip, she was quite clear on where she wanted to go. Antarctica!When Mrs. Dalai speaks, I listen. And so, we are presently on a ship traversing the Drake Passage, and will indeed reach Antarctica by tomorrow morning.Yes, it ' s getting colder...Supposedly the temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula itself will be in the low 30 ' s Fahrenheit, not quite as bad as I e...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - February 11, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Fovia Utopia
I ' ve found over the years that the PACS field is rather mobile. A friend that worked for company A might now be found at company C having arrived there after doing time at firm B. You might remember back when Merge first bought out Amicas...there were some discussions about whom to keep and whom to let go, and I was rather vocal in urging (begging?) Merge to keep the folks who madeAmicasMerge PACS what it is. That didn ' t work out, but one of my friends from that realm is now with an amazing little company called Fovia. I sought him out at RSNA, as I usually do, and he showed me some cool stuff. Due to some personal thi...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - January 18, 2017 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Don't Spamalot...Or Even A Little!!!
We all know what SPAM is...unsolicited e-mail that clogs your inbox. But as with beauty, the definition of SPAM may well be in the eyes of the beholder. Or the SPAMMER.After receiving yet another piece ofshi... I mean SPAM from someone who friended me on LinkedIn for the express purpose of SPAMMING, I wrote this little article for consumption on that site:A follow up from last year ' s SPAM post. DO NOT USE LinkedIn to SPAM other members. I ' ve made the mistake of accepting contact requests, and my new " friend " proceeds to bombard me with messages and emails about their " wonderful new product/software/service/doodad/wi...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - December 16, 2016 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Artificial Intelligence at RSNA: I'm Sorry, Dave. I'm Afraid I Won't Be Taking Over...
DISCUSSION all over RSNA was Artificial Intelligence, and in particular, AI as applied to Radiology. Well, let ' s be even more specific. There was a cloud (pun intended) hanging over McCormick, the specter of RSNA Yet To Come, which I quite presciently predicted in my 2011RSNA Christmas Carol:I sat down on a PET/CT gantry and bowed my head. The room spun, and when I looked up again, we were seated on a bench beside Lake Michigan. It was a blustery day, with winds one only sees in Chicago in the winter. Strangely, I felt no chill, as I watched leaves blowing through the PACSman ' s shadowy figure.I looked behind me and gas...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - December 11, 2016 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Home Sweet Home
I ' m back home from my adventures, so these posts will go back to being boring as usual. But, I still have to tell you about my final triumph. Well, perhapstriumph is too strong a term, but we did have a bit of success. As you see in the image above, we sent a nuclear study, a thyroid scan, from the e.cam to the PACS, where it can be seen on the laptop above. This is definitely the first time this has been done at Korle Bu, and probably the first time in Accra and all of Ghana, and maybe Western Africa as well. We ' ve made history!But all good things must come to an end, and it was time to prepare to go home. There had b...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - November 8, 2016 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
It's Just Another Manic Monday...And Tuesday...And Wednesday...
I ' m still here in Accra, this morning working on some stuff before my appointment with the Head of Nuclear Medicine here at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. More on nuclear things momentarily.We hit the ground running on Monday, after the emotional trip to Cape Coast the day before. We were to meet with the Head of IT and tour the facilities (Brian tells me there is a server room that is right up there with most he ' s seen) and speak with those knowledgeable in a locally-developed mini-EHR designed for the OB-GYN Department. But due to various scheduling conflicts and the Head of PACS IT taking ill, we ultimately met simply ...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - November 2, 2016 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Slave Castle
There are a few places on our lovely planet that sit in silent testimony to the horrors man can inflict upon his fellow man, and I had the honor and privilege to visit such a place today. I write this with difficulty, but it must be written. What I ' ve felt today must rival what one feels at a concentration camp (I ' ve yet to visit one, but I must). There is nothing but sadness at this place, the knowledge of just how low humanity can sink, how evil can take over a good man ' s soul.We left early this morning for a three-hour drive from Accra in a VERY small Hyundai, over relatively good roads. The trip was uneventful, e...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - October 30, 2016 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Weekend Update
I have a short report covering the past couple of days ' activities, but despite the relative brevity, you may rest assured that things remain busy here in Accra!On Thursday, Ben had asked me to look into sending exams back to the modalities in case something needed to be printed from the console and not PACS. (Brian continues to make progress in DICOM printing from Merge PACS; there is still a contrast issue with the printed films.) While I was able to find the mechanism to do this, the transmissions did not go through completely, and I think this indicates a problem with the configuration on the modality end. Howeve...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - October 29, 2016 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Preliminary Status
This morning, I spent an hour demonstrating Merge PACS to the residents and those attendings who were able to, well, attend. I went over some basics of the PACS, as well as a few of the more powerful tools, and everyone seemed to grasp very quickly what I had to offer. In particular, in working with several residents in CT and MRI, I found ALL were using the worklists as I had suggested. Wonderful!!! I was able to show those in the CT reading room the ease with with they could create 3D renderings. We tried this with both thin and thick data, and of course the thins gave the best result.While watching the workflow, it beca...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - October 26, 2016 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Worklists...
Time for today ' s PACS opus...I can report a day of incremental progress.All three of us met with the Head of the Radiology Department first thing this morning and then with the residents. I will have a session with them tomorrow at 8, wherein I will run a PACS demo on the big screen in the Radiology Conference Room, and take questions as I go. I think this will prove valuable and will lay the foundation for some one-on-one time later on.The rest of my day was spent mostly in the PACS/reading room, again working closely with Dr. B., the IT-savvy resident. (Honestly, I think that when I ’m done here, he will be Korle Bu ...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - October 25, 2016 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Monday, Monday...
Korle Bu CourtyardOur first daily report from Korle Bu!We had a very good first day! (Well, Erin was under the weather in the morning, perhaps a reaction to her anti-malarial, but she recovered quickly and joined us after lunch.) We had a significant amount of hurry-up-and-wait in the morning. Ben, Mack (PACS/IT), Brian, and I made the trip back and forth to the Nuclear Medicine department several times, waiting on those we needed to see. We finally did connect later in the day. More on that shortly.While not in transit, Brian and I spent the morning in the reading room with Ben and Dr. B., one of the residents. We were ab...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - October 24, 2016 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
