Fuji Synapse Picture Archiving and Communication System Overview

Introduction

FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA, Inc. Is one of the companies of Fuji Film, with more than 70 years in the field of imagery, nearly 40 years in the field of radiology, and more than $28 billion in sales, the company is the leading provider of “medical image and information products and technologies for acquiring, processing, presenting, managing and storing diagnostic images” (Fuji Film 2009).

One of the company’s top directions is the developments in the field of Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), where Fuji Synapse PACS represents a seamless solution for managing, storing, distributing imagery and data in the scale of a whole medical facility. In that regard, this paper provides an overview of the aforementioned system, listing its main technical features, along with comparing the main characteristics with similar products from the company’s closest competitors.

The Main Operations

Fuji Synapse PACS is a system that belongs to the Synapse radiology family of products, fulfilling the needs of radiology departments. Synapse PACS is currently installed on more than 2000 sites worldwide, which main tasks and general features can be summarized as follows:

• Providing full compatibility with the tasks specified by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) Guidelines and the American College of Radiology (ACR) Practice Guideline for Communication of Diagnostic Imaging Findings and Peer Review. Such tasks include critical results reporting, management of task lists, instant messaging, and others.
• Providing a graphical view, single and multiple, of the activity of the radiology department, allowing time prioritization and faster delivery of results.
• Imagery-related tasks – including management of images and multi-image studies interpretations, gathering the data from Positron emission tomography (PET) and Computed tomography (CT) data from scanners and accordingly calculating the Standardized Uptake Value (SVU) required for diagnosis.
• Integration with third-party applications
• Full-field digital mammography (FFDM) tasks- including breast imaging functionality, and the alignment of breast images for better comparison.
• Viewing and reporting tasks for cardiovascular imaging
• Management of Electrocardiography (ECG) from any department over the internet (Fuji News 2009)

The Main Components

Basically, Synapse is a management program that consists of a collection of modules, which can be installed on any computer fulfilling the minimal requirements of the installation and working on the Microsoft Windows platform. The components might differ, based on the version of the software installed, i.e. the workstation or the server application. The communication between the server and the workstation is entirely web-based. The main components-modules of the server application include the following:

• Database server – a tracking system of all the aspects of the PACS, and which communicates with the workstations through HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The access to the database is controlled through users’ privileges.
• Web server – Windows Internet Information System (IIS) based server, which manages all the data exchanged between the workstations. All data is sent over standard web ports, i.e. 80 and 8080 for standards and encrypted respectively. The implementation of the webserver is based on the desired functionality and the volume of data and images exchanges, and thus, it can be installed on one server or multiple servers.
• Storage server – as the title implies, it is the main server used for storage of the data, including images, documents, and Synapse file objects.
• DICOM server – DICOM stands for Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine, a standard with its file format and protocol. In that regard, the DICOM server handles this standard by managing the entries from DICOM modalities as well as providing a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for each file. Once the DICOM information was retrieved and stored, they are requested directly from the Synapse database.
• HIIS Server – this server provides an interface that integrates into the hospital’s information system –HL-7. The integration allows including such functions as order and report, as well as Admit/Discharge/Transfer (ADT) information.
• Recollection Server – basically providing a certain buffer in which the information is cached for a faster transfer. The server is an implementation of the Microsoft ISA (Internet Security and Acceleration) Server.
• Hierarchical Storage Manager (HSM) – a module that manages to archive, copying, and back up the data to spinning disk media.
• PreCache Server – a server that examines any scheduled tasks and prepares the data for retrieval, either from primary storage or from an archive, triggering HSM to manage the retrieval of the image from and to the archive. The server is used to increase the speed and the efficiency of the tasks, as well as in cases where a specific schedule is required.

The components of the server application of Synapse are mostly addressed toward the management, storage, and exchange of information between different workstations and modules, whereas the workstation application of Synapse is concerned with the basic tasks related to i9maging. In that regard, the components of the workstation application include the following functions:

• Image and display tasks – includes common image processing and editing capabilities such as selecting, cutting, copying, enhancing, etc. The functions are similar to any graphical processing software with narrowing the functionality to the supported formats, as well as adding exclusive features such as Synapse 3D – Integrated MIP/MPR reformatting application.
• Workflow tasks – includes tasks related to content management and workflow organization.
• Reading Protocols (RPs) related tasks – the functionality of this feature implies automating the process of display and diagnosis, through a set of protocols, which can be selected y the user. In that regard, the usage of the procedures can be paralleled to the usage of macros in-office applications, where a predefined set of filters and commands can automate specific tasks with specific objects.
• Information tasks – accessing clinical information through the integrated module allowing access to the hospital’s information system.
• Administration tasks
• DICOM Transfer – basic import/export capabilities to exchange the data with other DICOM data sources (Synapse 2008).

Comparison

A product similar in functionality can be seen in Intelerad’s IntelePACS, a standalone diagnostic workstation installed in more than 400 sites worldwide. Comparing the technical side, Synapse has more features in the viewing tasks, which are the main objective of installing PACS in general.

In that regard, Synapse has more pictures options as well as increased complexity in usage. Additionally, it should be mentioned that IntelePACS has an edge incompatibility with computer platforms, where the software can be installed on the Linux operating system, adding to the flexibility of choosing the platform. In general, in the technical part, Synapse has an edge, in terms of functions directly related to the systems’ main tasks, whereas in external features such as support, and flexibility IntelePACS might have some advantage in that part (Intelerad Medical Systems – Radiology PACS and Standalone Diagnostic Workstation 2009; PACSLife 2006).

References

Fuji Film. 2009. Company Info. FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA. Web.

Fuji News. 2009. FUJIFILM IS FIRST MAJOR VENDOR TO DEPLOY COMPLETE WEB-BASED RIS / PACS / C-PACS / WOMEN’S IMAGING SOLUTION. FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA. Web.

Intelerad Medical Systems – Radiology PACS and Standalone Diagnostic Workstation. 2009. Hospital Management. Web.

PACSLife. 2009. Comparison: Intelerad vs Fuji. Web.

Synapse. 2009. Workstation Software. FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA. Web.