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The purpose of this study was to determine if the size of ultrasound examinations was increasing over time. The primary reasons for this are believed to be an increased number of images per study, the incorporation of "cine loops", and increased use of color flow Doppler. The result of this study, if it supports the hypothesis that ultrasound study size is increasing, would be directly applicable to planning for future expansion of storage in the Ultrasound PACS. Data were obtained from the ultrasound PACS server for number of studies, number of images, and total stored volume for sampled months (January and July of 2003 - 2006). The investigators believed that these months would provide a reasonable sample of study size as examination types did not vary significantly from month to month (based on Departmental statistics). The Radiology Department's information system (RIS) was used to determine total yearly ultrasound examination volume to determine the trend over time. Because no protected health information (PHI) was to be used in this study, the investigators believed that no IRB approval was necessary. The number of studies done per month was more variable than the investigators had believed. One month in particular (July, 2003) had an anomalously large number of studies. However, despite this, computations of the number of images per study, the total data volume per study, and the average amount of data per image did show an increasing trend as expected. Also, the total volume of data stored showed an increasing trend over the study time period. The investigators' hypothesis that examination size is increasing has been demonstrated to be true for the months sampled. From Departmental data, the investigators know that the most recent ultrasound yearly volume increased approximately ten percent over the previous year, and that trend was also seen for the study period (from 7-10 percent per year increase in volume). With the information that the examination size is also increasing, the Department can make better plans for future expansion of the Ultrasound PACS storage system. Ultrasound examination size is increasing, largely because of the increased use of cine loops. A change to using more of these to replace single static images will further increase examination size.

The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of a PACS in ultrasound increased the number of images acquired per examination. The hypothesis that such an increase does occur was based on anecdotal information; this study sought to test the hypothesis. There was no significant difference in the total number of images per study for film and PACS.

Two approaches were taken to evaluating the potential for productivity improvement that could result from use of a miniPACS in the ultrasound section. First, a time-motion study was carried out on conventional, non-networked ultrasound machines to determine the amount of time that sonographers spend handling film. A component of this was also the darkroom time and was separately measured. Second, a field trial of an ultrasound system that incorporated centralized printing techniques was done. The first study showed a mean film handling time of 28.3 seconds per film (standard deviation: 11.4 seconds) and a darkroom time (not processing time) of 16.3 seconds per film (standard deviation: 4.2 seconds). Expanding these to multiple films per study and multiple studies per sonographer shows that elimination of film handling by `partial PACS' centralized printing or `miniPACS' for ultrasound can result in additional sonographer time available for examinations, or reductions in sonographer overtime.