Imaging informatics course · Free readiness check

Where do you stand?

Answer 25 questions drawn from the 10 modules of the imaging informatics course. When you finish, you see your score and how you did in each module, with a link to it. You don't need an account, a payment, or an email to take it, and your answers never leave your browser.

Part 1Procurement, Project Management, Operations5 questions
Part 2Communications, Training and Education, Image Management5 questions
Part 3Image Management, Information Technology, Systems Management5 questions
Part 4Systems Management, Clinical Engineering5 questions
Part 5Clinical Engineering, Medical Imaging Informatics5 questions

0 of 25 answered

Part 1 of 5 · Procurement, Project Management, Operations Question 1 of 25

The evaluation team has chosen a vendor, but the draft contract does not say how the organization can export its images and reports if it leaves. How should the team proceed?

Sign now and negotiate export terms when the contract endsRely on the vendor's statement that its system supports DICOMLeave the export question for IT to handle after go-liveSettle the exit and transition terms, including the image and report data, before signing

Part 1 of 5 · Procurement, Project Management, Operations Question 2 of 25

At the project retrospective after a PACS go-live, the team reviews the defects and other problems that came up during the rollout. What should the retrospective produce for each problem?

A note only for the problems that delayed the go-live dateA list of who raised each problem, with no action decidedA record of the problem and the action needed to resolve it or prevent it in later rolloutsA decision to close each problem as accepted, since the system is now live

Part 1 of 5 · Procurement, Project Management, Operations Question 3 of 25

The vendor's proposal promised four-hour on-site response for PACS hardware failures. The signed support and maintenance agreement does not include that commitment and does not make the proposal part of the contract. What should the team do?

Rely on the proposal, because the vendor made the offer in writingAsk the vendor to confirm the response time by emailAdd the response commitment to the agreement through a formal, approved contract changeRaise the gap at the next renewal and accept current service until then

Part 1 of 5 · Procurement, Project Management, Operations Question 4 of 25

A PACS support contract renews automatically in 90 days. Over the past year the vendor repeatedly missed its agreed response times. What should the team do before the renewal date?

Compare the vendor's record with the agreed terms and use it to renegotiateLet the contract renew, then raise the misses at the next service reviewCancel the contract at once and start looking for a new vendorAsk the vendor for a price discount without mentioning the misses

Part 1 of 5 · Procurement, Project Management, Operations Question 5 of 25

A hospital is drafting the service level terms of its PACS support contract. Which provision gives it a service level it can track and enforce?

A list of vendor escalation contacts with no time targetsThe list of DICOM SOP classes the PACS supportsThe price per study stored over the contract termA measurable uptime target, how delivery against it is tracked, and what happens when it is missed

Part 2 of 5 · Communications, Training and Education, Image Management Question 6 of 25

A planned PACS downtime is announced in one technical email. Executives read it, but emergency department clinicians do not learn what to do while images are unavailable. What should the next notice do?

Add more technical detail so that every reader understands the causeRepeat the same email closer to the start of the downtimeMove the notice to the IT intranet page instead of emailGive each audience its own message, with the actions that group must take

Part 2 of 5 · Communications, Training and Education, Image Management Question 7 of 25

A training lead is drafting the learner assessment for a class on correcting misfiled PACS studies. The draft is a generic quiz on PACS history, and learners see only a final score. How should the lead revise the assessment?

Keep the quiz and raise the pass mark so only the strongest learners passBuild the questions on realistic misfiling cases from the department, and give learners feedback on each answerReplace the quiz with an end-of-class survey on how satisfied learners wereDrop the quiz and give every attendee a certificate of completion

Part 2 of 5 · Communications, Training and Education, Image Management Question 8 of 25

Why is radiology usually the easiest content to bring into an enterprise archive, compared with many clinical photographs?

Radiology studies are smaller than most clinical photographsRadiology studies are typically acquired in DICOM and associated with order and accession metadataRadiology studies have shorter retention periods than photographsRadiology studies are acquired at lower resolution than photographs

Part 2 of 5 · Communications, Training and Education, Image Management Question 9 of 25

Cardiology plans to move echocardiography and catheterization studies into the enterprise archive. What should the team do before sizing storage?

Assume most objects are small structured reports of measurementsAssume most objects are single-frame images similar in size to CT slicesFind out which kinds of objects the cardiac studies contain, including multiframe angiography and ultrasound images, instead of assuming a typical object sizeBase the storage estimate on the radiology retention period alone

Part 2 of 5 · Communications, Training and Education, Image Management Question 10 of 25

A hospital's image retention policy covers radiology studies but does not mention dermatology photographs taken on clinic cameras. What should the team do?

Add the photographs to the enterprise imaging inventory and define a written retention rule for them based on clinical use and applicable policyLeave them out, because only radiology images are part of the recordDelete the photographs once the dermatologist has reviewed themLet each clinic decide for itself how long to keep its photographs

Part 3 of 5 · Image Management, Information Technology, Systems Management Question 11 of 25

An archive holds studies that are past the normal retention period. Which condition must be checked before any of them is deleted?

Whether the archive is more than 80 per cent fullWhether the studies predate the current PACS software releaseWhether a radiologist has opened them in the past yearWhether the written retention policy and the retention rules of each applicable jurisdiction permit deletion

Part 3 of 5 · Image Management, Information Technology, Systems Management Question 12 of 25

A department must keep signed policy documents readable for decades, without depending on the software that created them. Which format is designed for that?

DOCX, saved with the word processor's current default settingsPDF/A, the archival profile of PDFJPEG images of each page, compressed to reduce storageHL7 v2 messages kept as pipe-delimited text files

Part 3 of 5 · Image Management, Information Technology, Systems Management Question 13 of 25

An interface exports study metadata as XML to a research database. The vendor announces that its next release will send JSON instead. What should the team do before the upgrade?

Update the receiving side for the new format and test it before go-liveAssume the JSON carries the same fields, since both formats are structuredStore the raw messages as plain text so that the format no longer mattersPostpone the vendor upgrade indefinitely to avoid any interface change

Part 3 of 5 · Image Management, Information Technology, Systems Management Question 14 of 25

The vendor of a web-based viewer announces the end of support for the browser version that most of the hospital's workstations use. What should the team do?

Keep the old browser, since the viewer still works on it todayTake the viewer out of service immediatelyPlan and test a move to a supported browser before support endsLet each user install whichever browser they prefer

Part 3 of 5 · Image Management, Information Technology, Systems Management Question 15 of 25

A PACS team wants controls built into the system itself to protect stored and transmitted patient images. Which list contains only such technical controls?

Access control, audit controls, integrity, authentication, and transmission securityFacility access controls, contingency operations, workstation use, workstation security, and device and media controlsSecurity management process, assigned security responsibility, workforce security, awareness training, and contingency planningBusiness associate contracts, written policies, documentation retention, sanctions, and breach notification

Part 4 of 5 · Systems Management, Clinical Engineering Question 16 of 25

A laptop used for teleradiology is stolen from a car. It held cached patient images outside its encrypted volume. Which physical safeguard governs how such a device leaves the facility?

Automatic logoff after a set period of inactivityAudit controls that record who opened each cached studyA unique user ID for each person who signs in to the laptopRules and a movement record for hardware and media that leave the facility

Part 4 of 5 · Systems Management, Clinical Engineering Question 17 of 25

Under the GDPR, what generally decides whether personal data collected for one purpose may be processed for a different purpose?

Whether the data is stored on servers inside the European UnionWhether the controller has appointed a data protection officerWhether the new purpose is compatible with the original one, or the further processing is based on the data subject's consent or on qualifying Union or Member State law under Article 6(4)Whether the data is still within its original retention period

Part 4 of 5 · Systems Management, Clinical Engineering Question 18 of 25

An audit finds that a CT scanner sends images to the PACS unencrypted, from the same network segment as the guest Wi-Fi. What should the team do?

Install endpoint antivirus on the scanner and leave the network unchangedMove the scanner to an isolated network segment with controlled traffic, and use DICOM TLS where supportedRename the guest Wi-Fi network and keep the shared segmentEncrypt the PACS database at rest and leave the network unchanged

Part 4 of 5 · Systems Management, Clinical Engineering Question 19 of 25

A diagnostic display is moved to a room with different ambient lighting. What should the display QA assessment include?

The previous room's results, since the display hardware has not changedMeasurements made only with the room lights off, so ambient light cannot affect themA recalibration to the manufacturer's default luminanceMeasurements in the new room, judged against its display category's criteria

Part 4 of 5 · Systems Management, Clinical Engineering Question 20 of 25

A display will be used to interpret screening mammograms. What should determine the QA criteria it must meet?

The brightness level the reading radiologist finds most comfortableThe criteria the hospital applies to its general office monitorsThe display category that follows from its intended clinical useThe lowest criteria that any display in the department now meets

Part 5 of 5 · Clinical Engineering, Medical Imaging Informatics Question 21 of 25

Radiologists report that subtle low-contrast findings are hard to see on one reading-room display, although it passed its last annual QA test. What should be done first?

Replace the display with the newest diagnostic model availableCheck its conformance to the DICOM grayscale display function and recalibrate if neededRaise the display's brightness setting until the readers are satisfiedSwap the display with one from a less busy reading room

Part 5 of 5 · Clinical Engineering, Medical Imaging Informatics Question 22 of 25

A health system's strategy is to give every clinician one view of a patient's images across radiology, cardiology, and wound photography. Which imaging decision best supports that strategy?

Let each specialty buy its own departmental PACS that suits its workflowPlan enterprise imaging with a shared archive and an EHR-launched viewerStandardize radiology on a single modality vendor across every siteMove all image storage to the lowest-cost archive tier available

Part 5 of 5 · Clinical Engineering, Medical Imaging Informatics Question 23 of 25

Which organization publishes integration profiles that specify how standards such as DICOM and HL7 are used together for a defined clinical workflow?

NEMA's Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance, the DICOM secretariatHL7 International, publisher of the HL7 Version 2 standardThe American College of Radiology, through its practice parametersIHE, the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise initiative

Part 5 of 5 · Clinical Engineering, Medical Imaging Informatics Question 24 of 25

A radiology department is writing a policy on how its CT examinations should be performed. Which published guidance is the most relevant starting point?

IHE integration profiles for radiology workflowThe hospital's medical staff bylawsThe American College of Radiology's practice parametersThe CT vendor's operator manual

Part 5 of 5 · Clinical Engineering, Medical Imaging Informatics Question 25 of 25

Two departments propose different custom interfaces for sending imaging orders to the same modalities. The informatics team wants one approach for all modalities. What should it do?

Adopt IHE Scheduled Workflow and state which of its actors each vendor must supportApprove whichever custom interface is cheaper to build and maintainBuild both interfaces and let each department keep its own designSend HL7 v2 order messages directly to each modality

Where do you stand?

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