TIMS Applications > Case Studies > Endoscopic Ultrasound

Problem:  Deaconess Medical Center (Spokane, WA) is one of the few hospitals in the region to have an endoscopic ultrasound system.  This Olympus system is used to see into and beyond the wall of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.  Previously, the only record of the studies had been paper prints of static images of the procedure.  Dr. Klaus Gottlieb, gastroenterologist at Deaconess, wanted to go further and acquire the video images from both the endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and the endoscope and convert them to DICOM.  This includes both the static images and the motion video when necessary.  That way, the images would be available for review and be sent to PACS for a permanent record.  Additionally, he wanted to be able to record the studies to CD/DVD to make them easily available to referring physicians.  They had already attempted a few solutions, but none had been able to successfully capture the video from the Olympus endoscopic ultrasound system.  What could be a real solution?

Solution:  TIMS DICOM System.  Dr. Gottlieb worked with his PACS administrator to find the TIMS DICOM System.  TIMS is able to acquire both static and motion video images from any medical modality, including the Olympus endoscopic ultrasound system.  Using a foot pedal attached to TIMS, Dr. Gottlieb is easily able to control the image capture during the procedure.  The images and video are available for review and are sent to their GE Centricity PACS.  CDs or DVDs of the studies can be recorded by TIMS so that they can be provided to the referring physicians and patients.  "TIMS has been a wonderful solution for providing our endosonography images in DICOM format.  It has been very easy to use and has delivered excellent image quality.  I would recommend TIMS to any hospital that wants conversion of their endoscopic ultrasound images to DICOM," said Dr. Gottlieb of Deaconess Medical Center.