How to Become a PACS Analyst
Step by Step Guide on what to learn and how to enter the field of Imaging Informatics
The following course modules are provided to you free of charge courtesy of PACS Boot Camp.
These modules are designed to help beginners understand topics essential for an imaging informatics professional to function successfully. The courses will be updated over time, with new modules being added periodically.
Available courses can be accessed if the links below are clickable. For further study, please refer to the Premium IIP Study Guide and additional reading recommendations.
BOOT CAMP SYLLABUS
The Three Main Categories
Disclaimer: PACS Bootcamp and its affiliates cannot guarantee the attainment of the following (but not limited to): Employment, passing grade on board exams, interview opportunities. This site provides free information for self educational purposes only. Please proceed at your own discretion.
IT Basics 101
Audience: The intended audience for the following IT Basics modules are medical professionals (nurses, technologists, therapists, doctors) that seek IT analyst/consultant/administrative roles in a healthcare setting.
- Hardware and software components
- Software components
- Hardware components
- Video card
- CPU, GPU
- Memory
- Hard drive
- Network Interface card
- Motherboard connectivity (PCI, USB, SCSI, AGP)
- Removable media hardware (CD, DVD, MOD, flash)
- Keyboards
- Disaster Recovery Plans and Business Continuity Strategies
- System Problem management
- Reporting procedures
- Automated monitoring
- Alerting
- SNMP
- Data and system recovery
- Off site archiving
- Hardware and software solutions
- Applications Service Provider
- System Problem management
- Network Architecture
- Network Protocols (Ethernet, Wireless, Bluetooth, TCP/IP)
- Transmission Protocols (FTP, HTTP, SSH, SFTP)
- Load balancing, fault tolerance, redundancy
- Network components and hardware (hub, switch, routers, gateway, trunks, cat5, cat6)
- Network Configuration (IP address, LAN, WAN, VLAN, DNS)
- Network metrics (capacity, bandwidth, performance, cost)
- Network Classification
- Data Retrieval
- Structured Query Language
- Data analytics and data mining
- Key performance indicators
- Database design, management and maintenance
- Relational db vs hierarchical db
- Basic principles
- Keys, normalization, table joining, performance
- IT Standards
- Data structures (XML, JSON)
- File systems (CIFS, NFS)
- Obsolescence Planning
- Technology lifecycle
- Moore’s Law
- Security
- Security strategies
- Physical
- System
- Application
- Encryption
- Security strategies
- Storage and Archive Technology and Architecture
- Architectures (ex. NAS, SAN, DAS)
- Storage network protocols (ex. SCI, fibre channel, ATA/SATA)
- Virtual architecture
- Citrix
- VMware
- Server architecture
- Authentication mechanisms
- Active Directory
- LDAP, LDAPS
- Kerberos
- Two factor authentication
- Archive strategies
- Online
- Nearline
- Data throughput
- Methods for storage management (virtualization, replication, mirroring)
- Storage metrics
Medical Basics 101
Audience: The intended audience for the Medical Basics content below are IT professionals that seek analyst/consultant/administrative roles in a medical setting such as a hospital, or medical service vendor.
- Medical Terminology
- Medical devices
- Hospital departments & service lines (cardiology, neurology, etc)
- Medical services
- Diagnostic Imaging
- Therapy
- Surgery
- Cancer care
- ER
- Urgent care
- Medical Anatomy
- Systems (Skeletal, Muscular, Integumentary, Lymphatic, Nervous)
- Systems.. continued
- Medical Physiology
- Systems (Skeletal, Muscular, Integumentary, Lymphatic, Nervous)
- Systems.. continued
- Health Information Systems
- HIS
- EMR/EHR
- RIS
- Scheduling
DICOM Basics 101
Audience: The intended audience for the following DICOM Basics modules are both medical and IT professionals. Or anyone seeking a career in Imaging Informatics. Some modules detail more advanced concepts that are useful for current Imaging professionals.
- Medical Image Hierarchy
- Patient Level
- Study Level
- Series Level
- Instance Level
- HL7 vs DICOM
- ORMs
- ORUs
- DICOM Configuration Parameters
- AET, IP, Port
- SCP/SCU
- Configuring your devices
- Calling AET, Called AET
- DICOM Modality Worklist
- Benefits of MWL
- Patient Orders Workflow
- Creating MWL
- Populating MWL
- Terms related to MWL
- DICOM Services
- Types of DICOM Services
- Benefits of DICOM Services
- DICOM SOP Classes
- IOD and DIMSE
- SOP Class UIDs
- SOP Classes without Pixel Data
- PR, SR, KO
- DICOM Operations
- DIMSE-N vs DIMSE-C
- DIMSE-C RQ vs DIMSE-C RSP
- Find, Move, Store, Get, Echo
- Operations in the Workflow
- DICOM Transfer Syntax
- Encoding
- Types of Transfer Syntaxes and UIDs
- Association Negotiation
- Abstract Syntax
- Presentation Context
- DICOM Validation
- Validation Steps
- How to Fix Errors
- Real World Scenarios
- Benefits of DICOM Validation