PACS (Picture Archiving & Communication System)
The system that stores, distributes, and displays every medical image across an NHS trust.
What it is
About PACS (Picture Archiving & Communication System)
PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) is the imaging IT backbone of every NHS radiology department. It receives DICOM images from all modalities (CT, MRI, X-ray, ultrasound, fluoroscopy), stores them in a long-term archive, and distributes them to radiologist workstations, clinical ward screens, and referring clinician portals. Radiologists use PACS viewing software to read studies — applying MPR (multi-planar reformatting), MIP (maximum intensity projection), 3D rendering, and measurement tools to produce structured reports. Major NHS PACS vendors include Sectra, Agfa HealthCare, GE Centricity, and Philips Vue. Cloud-based regional PACS is increasingly common, enabling image sharing between NHS trusts without burning CDs.
What you can do with it
Capabilities
Open a study on a DICOM viewer, apply window/level presets for the relevant tissue type (e.g. lung windows for chest CT), and scroll through the full image stack
Use MPR tools to reconstruct axial, coronal, and sagittal planes from a 3D CT dataset to assess pathology in multiple orientations
Measure a lesion's longest axis, HU attenuation, and growth rate across serial studies using calibrated annotation tools
Share a study with a referring clinician or another trust by generating a web-accessible link or exporting via secure DICOM transfer
Route a study to the correct radiologist worklist based on urgency (emergency, urgent, routine) using RIS worklist management integrated with PACS
How to learn it
Learning Resources
NHS trust radiology induction provides PACS access and basic training — every radiographer and radiology registrar receives system-specific training at deployment
Vendor training (Sectra Education, Agfa HealthCare Academy) is available for power users and administrators
The RCR (Royal College of Radiologists) e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH) platform includes radiology modules covering PACS workflow and reporting
Spend time systematically reviewing cases in every modality on PACS — the image interpretation skill develops through volume of exposure to normal and abnormal studies
Pro Tip
Learn the keyboard shortcuts for your PACS viewer before attempting to report at pace. In Sectra and most systems, single-key window/level presets, scroll speed adjustments, and annotation shortcuts are what separate a 3-minute CT read from a 7-minute one. Radiologists who mouse-click everything are significantly slower.
Skills that use this tool
Roles that use this tool