Hospital goes digital tech

During the coming months, Simi Valley Hospital will install a $1.7million computerized radiology and picture archive computer system.

The equipment will fully digitize X-rays, mammograms and other imaging technologies that have remained in the conventional film format.

The computerized radiology component of the new system should be running by early summer. The technology records Xray images in a digital format, eliminating the need for film.

The digital images are uploaded into the second component, the picture archive computer system, which offers a number of advantages over conventional film storage.

Digital images can be categorized and retrieved more quickly and easily than film images. Digital images can be lightened, darkened and moved around on the screen. This will help to reduce the need to reshoot X-rays.

Images can be copied to a portable format, such as CD, while retaining a duplicate of the image in the archive. A physician or other authorized caregiver can view the image anywhere in the world via the Internet.

The new equipment will also be used for mammograms taken at the Nancy Reagan Breast Center.

The hospital's corporate parent, Adventist Health, provided funding for the project.