Wednesday, November 23, 2005

ITL Arrives Warped

Image Technology Laboratories has finally got its PACS system up and running at the imaging center we cover. It is only three or four months late. This is because the management did not like the workflow of the scheduling component and made ITL rewrite the whole module. We'll see how management feels about the fact that the Radiology workflow is totally out of whack.

The key to the WarpSpeed PACS is also the reason it will not be accepted by the rads. Instead of using the mouse and cursor that we have all grown to know and love since Apple sent the cute girl through Big Brother's image in 1984, WarpSpeed uses a touchplate with smaller images to control everything. The worst part of this is that you have to take your eyes off the image and look at the darn touchplate. Every ergonomic study done since the dawn of man says that you shouldn't have to take your eyes off what you are doing! But, ITL asked their one sponsoring radiologist in New York if this was OK, and he said it was, so the rest of the world be damned. Add to this the lack of usable tools and logical controls, and you have a system the rads aren't going to use. Bargains aren't bargains if they sit in a corner unused; they are very expensive doorstops.

Sorry, guys. I tried to explain this and more well before the thing even arrived, but the price spoke louder than I could.

No comments :