Time to set up and administer

    Hi all,


    Has anyone got some figures on how long it takes to set up and maintain a Conquest PACS server? How many hours it takes to get it up and running, and how many hours per week are needed to keep it running well.
    I realise this is an open question, but rough figures would be helpful for us.
    We're a rural university in Australia and are comparing 3 different PACS systems for our new vetinary hospital.


    Many thanks for any help you can provide.


    Regards


    Chris Quin
    HealthIT
    James Cook University
    Townsville, Australia

    Well, I use a mysql system. Including downloading and installing mysql, setup is 1-2hours on a basic windows xp box. The biggest hassle is putting together an optimized mysql.ini file...
    I have been very happy with maintenance. The system needs none really. I use diskkeeper to maintain the ntfs disk automatically. The mysql does not have any restrictions like MS SQL and has been entirely trouble free. I have disk mirroring so backup is automatic.


    Now with version 13, I ran into conquest out of memory crashes but that problem is fixed with 14alpha I think. Typically, Conquest/MySQL requires no regular maintenance. I check for disk space, or unforeseen events like hardware failures, etc.


    Our machine handles 1.5 million images on 27,000 patients, all modalities. I have no experience with worklist issues.
    Hope this helps.
    LJJ

    Hi!


    Well setting up Conquest so that "it worked" took about 1 hour with MySQL.
    Configuring all AE Titles and foreward rules took quite some time..lets say "about a work day" until it worked the way we wanted it to (keep in mind we had no idea of conquest before - so thats quite quick, I think).
    MySQL tweaking can be a pain in the ass.....but in the beginning it will work just fine - it just gets more important the biger your DB gets (MySQL ini setting and DB maintnance). At the moment we have around 45.0000 CT / MR studies using ~1.2TB (compressed) with a DB-size of ~4,5GB.


    The only major drawback I see is that if conquest cannot handle a receiving study it wont be saved and you will have an entry in the log but no email etc.. . . So if you do not check the log on a regular basis it might happen that some studies are missing nad you have to import them manyualy from CD/DVD or where ever you have them archived.
    greetz

    Thanks all for your prompt and informative responses.
    I'm slightly less intimidated by it all now, and we certianly won't be processing anywhere near the volume that some of you are.
    Probably somewhere around 10,000 images per annum once the vet hospital fires right up in the next two years or so.


    Next question:
    If we want to use something like I2View or Efilm for viewing can we compress?
    Something in the docco got me a little worried about this feature.


    Many thanks



    Chris

    Hi Chris


    Well with 10.000 img per year it schould be very easy once you have set up you storage disc and DB.
    I do not know of I2View, but we use Efilm (it should work anyway). If desired, Conquest stores all incoming images compressed (as we do) in a NKI lossless compression with file extension "*.v2". This file format, as far as I know, cannot directly (from this disc) be read by ANY other software.
    But within conquest any receiving client, such as efilm, can be configured to receive images either uncompressed or compressed (so if EFILM is configured to receive onnly "uncompressed" the conquest server de-compresses any image before sending it to the client (can be done for any client) - so it only depends on what your client software is capable of :-). - it may requiere some testing :-)
    greetz

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