DEVELOPMENT OF A LOW COST ACR-NEMA PACS INTERFACE

THE PURPOSE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT EFFORT IS TO DEVELOP A LOW COST/GENERAL PURPOSE ACR-NEMA PACS INTERFACE. THE LONG TERM GOAL OF THIS EFFORT IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN APPLICATION SPECIFIC INTEGRATED CIRCUIT (ASIC) IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ACR-NEMA INTERFACE STANDARD. THIS ASIC WOULD CONTAIN THE INTERFACE TRANSCEIVERS AND THE LOGIC TO IMPLEMENT THE PHYSICAL AND DATALINK LAYERS OF THE ACR-NEMA STANDARD. THE IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVE OF THE PHASE I EFFORT IS TO DEVELOP A TWO CHIP SET WHICH IMPLEMENTS THE LOGIC OF THE PHYSICAL AND DATALINK LAYERS OF THE ACR-NEMA STANDARD. THE GROWING INTEREST IN PACS AND THE GROWING ACCEPTANCE OF THE ACR-NEMA STANDARD AMONG RADIOLOGISTS, RESEARCHERS AND THE MAJOR MEDICAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS MAKES THIS DEVELOPMENT EFFORT PARTICULARLY RELEVANT. THE NEAR TERM COMMERCIAL AVAILABILITY OF A TWO CHIP ACR-NEMA LOGIC SET WOULD STIMULATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOW COST ACR-NEMA BOARD AND SYSTEM LEVEL PRODUCTS BY PACS RESEARCHERS AND COMMERCIAL FIRMS. THE AVAILABILITY OF AN ACR-NEMA ASIC WOULD FURTHER REDUCE COSTS AS THE NUMBER OF ACR-NEMA SYSTEMS INCREASES.