Glossary

A B C D F H I L M N O P R S T U W


A

accession number

A unique ID or job number that is generated by the hospital RIS and is used for tracking each exam and its corresponding patient name, date, and exam type.

ADAM

Active Directory Application Mode. Directory services for an individual application that controls user login and privilege information.

AD LDS

Active Directory Lightweight Directory Service. Directory services for an individual application that controls user login and privilege information on Windows Server 2008. In an IMPAX installation, runs on the Application Server.

ADT

Admission, Discharge, Transfer. An ADT message contains patient demographic and visit information that is stored by a HIS or RIS.

AE title

Application Entity title of a DICOM station. This is a unique identifier within the network, assigned to the station.

Application Server

Intermediary server between IMPAX Client and IMPAX Server machines. LDAP, Documentation, and other Business Services reside on the Application Server.

ASPFTP

Authenticated Simple Partial File Transfer Protocol. A secure version of the SPFTP protocol.

Audit Record Repository

IHE name for the audit manager component.

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B

BLS

Business Logic Server. The part of an application program that performs required data processing, such as data entry, update, query and report processing.

browser

Software that allows a user to search through information on a server. The term usually refers to a universal client application, such as Firefox or MS Internet Explorer, that interprets HTML documents.

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C

cc objects

Change Context (cc) objects are DICOM objects used to communicate and synchronize study metadata changes across multiple IMPAX clusters.

cloning

Copies the same set of images of the performed study once to each of the scheduled studies.

cluster

A networking solution combining two or more otherwise independent computers, enabling them to work together in managing hospital data.

Connectivity Manager

A middleware component in the integration between hospital information systems and other hospital imaging departments. Connectivity Manager also provides connectivity to each modality and the PACS.

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D

DICOM

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine. The standard communication protocol used by a PACS, HIS, or modality to exchange information or images with other systems.

domain controller

The server that responds to security authentication requests, such as logging in and checking permissions, within the Windows Server domain.

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F

firewall

On a local area network (LAN) connected to a larger network, the security system that prevents outside intrusion and that keeps internal information from getting out. Typically, all traffic must pass through the machine on which the firewall is implemented.

fully qualified domain name (FQDN)

The full name of a system, consisting of its local host name and its domain name, including a top-level domain. For example, venera is a host name and venera.isi.edu is a fully qualified domain name. A fully qualified domain name should be sufficient to determine a unique Internet address for any host on the Internet. This process, called name resolution, uses the Domain Name System (DNS).

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H

HIPAA

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This United States act includes Privacy and Security regulations to guarantee patients rights and protections against the misuse or disclosure of personally identifiable health information, referred to as Protected Health Information (PHI).

HIS

Hospital Information System. The database used by a hospital to manage patient information and scheduling.

HIS verification

An option that forces the PACS to verify all incoming images from an acquisition station or modality against specific criteria, such as the patient ID and accession number. The PACS sends a message through the RIS Gateway to verify the criteria against what is contained in the HIS. If the criteria match, then the images can be stored permanently.

HL7

Stands for Health Level 7, a standard communication protocol used for the transmission of medical information. HL7 is used primarily by HIS systems and does not support transmission of images.

horizon

Defines when orders for scheduled studies are sent from the RIS or connectivity component to another system, such as a modality, in the Radiology department. Generally, the horizon value is defined as “hours before” the scheduled start time.

host name

The host name is a common alphanumeric alias for the IP address of a server.

HTTP

Hypertext transfer protocol, a TCP-based protocol for transferring hypertext requests and information between servers and browsers.

HTTPS

Hypertext transfer protocol, secure, a URL access method for connecting to http servers using SSL (secure sockets layer).

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I

IHE

Stands for Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise. IHE is an initiative by healthcare professionals and industry to improve the way computer systems in healthcare share information. IHE promotes the coordinated use of established standards such as DICOM and HL7 to address specific clinical needs in support of optimal patient care.

IIS

Internet Information Services. A set of programs for building and administering websites, a search engine, and support for writing web-based applications that access databases.

IP address

The Internet Protocol address is a numeric address that identifies the station to other TCP/IP devices on the network.

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L

LDAP

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, the technology for storing user names and IDs, passwords, and user-related preferences. This information is stored in an LDAP depository.

load balancing

Distributing processing and communications activity evenly across a computer network so that no single device is overwhelmed.

log file

A file or set of files containing a record of the actions and modifications made in an application. Service teams use log files during setup and configuration of the system or its components. Logs are also used to diagnose problems. Logging can typically be set to record varying levels of detail.

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M

MAC address

Media Access Control address. The unique physical address of each device’s network interface card.

MCF

Mitra Common Framework.

modality

An imaging discipline, such as CT, or a device that gathers digital information, such as digitizers for X-ray film, MRI scanners, and CR devices.

MPPS

Modality Performed Procedure Step. MPPS is a mechanism used by modalities to report the status of an acquisition. MPPS messages indicate whether the acquisition (or study) is in progress, completed, or canceled.

MVF

Refers both generally to the Agfa IMPAX PACS system and specifically to the name of the IMPAX Server database.

MWL

MWL = modality worklist, the list of studies that are scheduled for a particular modality. The technologist works from this list to minimize data entry errors and ensure data integrity. For example, a modality worklist can include the patient name, patient ID, accession number, scheduled procedure, and scheduled date and time for the study.

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N

Network Gateway

The Network Gateway is part of the IMPAX MVF cluster. Essentially, this is the workflow manager of the IMPAX 6.0 and later system. The Network Gateway controls the studies coming into the cluster from an acquisition station, validates these incoming studies against information from the HIS or RIS, and routes the validated studies to cache or archive.

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O

ODBC

Open Database Connectivity. A standard protocol for accessing relational databases based around SQL.

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P

PACS

A Picture Archive and Communication Systems (PACS) makes it possible to electronically store, manage, distribute, and view images.

patient ID

A hospital-wide unique identifier for a patient. Also called a Medical Record Number (MRN).

port

A physical hardware interface for connecting external devices to a computer, or it can be understood as a software interface for network communications.

protocol

Language in which two systems communicate. For example, DICOM, HL7, and SQL are all protocols.

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R

remote station

Any station that can be accessed over the network. A PACS, display station, HIS, RIS, or CIS are examples of remote stations. In an enterprise solution, remote stations may also be thought of as those connecting to the network through the Internet, rather than through any direct in-hospital or on-campus connections.

RIS

Radiology Information System. Responsible for scheduling exams and for report management in the Radiology department.

role

A collection of users or other roles that holds IMPAX Client permissions and preferences as well as licensing options. For example, a role can represent the enterprise, the institution, a department, or a team.

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S

SCP

Service Class Provider. A DICOM server that receives requests from an SCU. The DICOM SCP accepts images for processing, processes find and retrieve requests, and handles storage commitment requests and replies.

site

A type of resource, referring to the overall hospital facility that houses departments, locations, specialties, and stations.

smart card

Smart cards, sometimes called chip cards, contain a computer chip embedded in the plastic. When read by special terminals, the cards can perform a number of functions or access data stored in the chip. These cards can be used as ID cards with stored-in passwords.

SOP

Service Object Pair. The combination of an information object and a service (for example, store an ultrasound, query and retrieve an ultrasound).

SPFTP

Simple Partial File Transfer Protocol. A proprietary transport protocol for communication within the IMPAX cluster.

SSL certificate

A digital certificate with the SSL protocol that has been issued by a certificate authority.

station

Type of resource. A station resource is a real world device on the PACS network, such as a modality or PACS.

stations

Within the context of the IMPAX Client configuration interface, refers to a computer that has the IMPAX Client installed. Stations can be in a radiology reading room, in the offices of clinicians, or in the homes of radiologists, for example. When a user logs into IMPAX for the first time, the computer name is listed in the navigation pane of the Configure area - Stations section. Stations are organized under station containers. You can set configuration options, such as diagnostic monitor settings, memory usage, and so on, for a specific station, or the station can inherit its configuration from the station container.

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T

transaction

A group of database operations combined into a logical unit of work.

tx objects

Transaction (tx) objects are DICOM objects used to communicate and synchronize study status changes across multiple IMPAX clusters.

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U

URL

Unique Uniform Resource Locator. Address of the form http://www.site_name.com/, used to point your web browser at a specific location on the Web.

user

Users represent individuals, such as a radiologist or a clinician. Each user must belong to at least one primary role. A user can also belong to other secondary roles. Users inherit permissions, licenses, and preferences from their role.

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W

Web Service

A component that runs on a web server and allows programs to request and receive data over HTTP or HTTPS.

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