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VELINDRE CANCER CENTRE ACQUIRES A PUKKA-J PACS BACKUP SERVER FOR DISASTER RECOVERY
Velindre Cancer Centre recently purchased and integrated a Pukka-j PACS backup server with its GE Centricity PACS. Pukka-j offers a novel approach towards a fault-tolerant solution for disaster recovery of PACS image data using a web-based model to provide the service. The company's backup PACS provides an automated backup of acquired PACS image data and recovery of stored PACS image data, all at a low operational cost and without the need for human intervention.
The hospital specified that at least 4GB worth of historic PACS image exams were needed for backup, as well as an automated backup of acquired PACS image data. The Pukka-j UNIX server is able to more than adequately comply with this requirement, since it currently operates on a 7TB disk capacity, which equates to between 14TB to 21TB of lossless compressed online image data. In addition, the server is located approximately 10 miles offsite at a remote data centre. The actual archive provided by Pukka-j is a 'replicated instance' of the GE 'PACS environment' that can be accessed during periods of unavailability or inaccessibility.
Dave Morrey, Director of IM&T, Velindre Trust comments:
At the Cancer Centre we considered it vital to have confidence in the system we put in place for disaster recovery. From an administrator¡¯s point of view, PACS disasters could be seen as a technical failure that impacts on overall performance, but to the radiologist or clinician it is often perceived as a single examination that cannot be viewed immediately. We feel that the Pukka-j system is able to provide just such re-assurance.
In a digital PACS environment, it is paramount that an archive be designed with a disaster mechanism in place. PACS is often installed to resolve data retention problems existing in the analogue world, specifically film loss. However, it is important to understand that the installation of PACS is no guarantee that images cannot be lost.
A single point of failure in PACS during a disaster scenario is the main archive storage and server. Few vendors' PACS feature disaster recovery, but for those that do, the design is often limited. Drawbacks include the frequency with which the backup is physically removed to an offsite facility, the operational costs associated with maintaining the backup, ease-of-use to perform the backup consistently and efficiently, and the ease-of-use to perform the PACS image data recovery.
The Pukka-j PACS backup system has been intelligently designed to deal specifically with difficult vendor's architecture. The system itself employs three separate tasks that continuously monitor and backup the vendor's PACS. The first task concentrates on mirroring the daily examinations. The second task constantly looks back over a three-month period for short-term historic data; this action captures all image data added to the primary PACS and includes post-processed data and imported images from removable media and CD's from other imaging institutions. The third and final task deals with all other data going back in time to a preset date.
The system also features the ability to view studies during the interim and until the primary PACS is fully recovered. The Pukka-j diagnostic viewer can be accessed as a stand-alone workstation application, or within a web browser, to query and view studies from the backup archive should the PACS workstations fail. The view features include window-level presents, MPR, cross-reference lines and cine functions.
The solution can be used for a variety of scheduled and unscheduled downtimes that occur on the main PACS. A backup archive RAID server and storage device is implemented offsite from the main PACS location and clinical data from the PACS is sent to the Pukka-j storage server in parallel to the exams being archived in the PACS. For disaster recover, Pukka-j can, if permitted by the PACS vendor, repopulate the primary PACS. In addition, the PACS backup service is built to provide access to an unlimited amount of years of online image storage and is also designed for expandability. New storage may be added incrementally - the Pukka-j server software is simply configured to use the additional storage.
Kelvin Wilson, Managing Director of Pukka-j comments:
When considering the next generation PACS, a thought should be given to the fact that most current PACS are less than 100 percent pure DICOM conformant and will store data in a propriety format that only their software and device can retrieve. The Pukka-j stand-alone archive solution can guarantee that all examination data is stored in a non-proprietary DICOM format that is accessible to both the current and future PACS. With a PACS-neutral solution there is no need to migrate the examination data when you change your PACS.
Velindre Cancer Centre provides specialist cancer services to 1.5 million people living in South East Wales. One of the ten largest cancer centres in the UK, activity has increased significantly over the years. The hospital sees over 5,000 new cancer referrals and around 50,000 outpatient appointments each year. The Cancer Centre is a division of Velindre NHS Trust, which was established in April 1994. The Centre, which was formerly known as Velindre Hospital, was opened in Whitchurch in 1956.
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