The Evolution of an Enterprise Solution: Meet Synapse PACS 7.2

AUTHOR: Nathan Gurgel, Director of Product Marketing - Enterprise Imaging, FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas Corporation

Remember the old days when DICOM ruled and PACS was exclusively for radiology? Soon, cardiologists wanted a way to view and archive their diagnostic images and vendors responded by developing cardiology PACS, exclusively for that specialty.

It was a good plan for a while, but eventually, institutions realized they were creating future problems for their enterprises and their physicians through workflow limitations and by creating islands of information and storage silos for various imaging modalities and specialties.

Today’s organizations need a true enterprise imaging platform, one that eliminates departmental silos, centralizes imaging content, and provides unobstructed imaging access through a common PACS viewer—with powerful workflow features and functionalities to support multiple specialists.

That’s exactly what Synapse version 7.2, Fujifilm’s next-generation PACS image visualization platform, delivers. I am proud to announce this latest version—built with input from and a shared vision with our valued customers.

Synapse 7x unites radiology, mammography, cardiology and enterprise imaging through a consolidated, zero-footprint PACS viewer built on our server-side rendering platform delivering ultrafast speed for today’s ever growing study sizes. And here’s more exciting news: version 7.2 delivers more than 80 new workflow features and advanced toolsets to enhance the efficiency of both clinical radiology and cardiology users and IT professionals.

Most importantly, Synapse 7.2 addresses the ever evolving clinical and workflow needs of care teams. It empowers real-time collaboration across all imaging areas and streamlines administrative tasks to consolidate clinical applications and support. Synapse 7.2 also supports both dictation system integration and our best-in-class integrated Advanced Reporting so radiology and cardiology professionals can choose the right tool to support their reporting needs.

Synapse 7.2 has come a long way since the early days of PACS, evolving from a radiology-specific tool to an innovative enterprise-wide solution that meets the demands of multiple specialties. So, how did we get here?

Moving from 5x to 7x Series

Fujifilm has a deep legacy adaptability, thriving on our constant ability to pivot our offering to address evolving market needs and demands – this is what led to our expansion in healthcare.

Since the introduction of Synapse PACS in 1999, Fujifilm’s Synapse PACS has been an industry leader in the radiology market, with every customer then, and still today, having a direct software upgrade path.

In 2007, Fujifilm acquired ProSolv Cardiovascular, Inc. to secure the best of breed offering in the cardiology clinical space, to grow our enterprise imaging portfolio and bolster our image management capabilities. Fast forward to the present day where the enterprise imaging landscape is far more complex, which allowed us to plan for the future, specifically on how we bring all clinical areas to a single platform.

Fujifilm responded by consolidating its radiology and cardiology deliverables into a single, sophisticated platform under the Synapse 7x umbrella, while still maintaining the clinical demands for both specialties.

The achievement of a combined platform of Synapse 7x, provides our customers with a single application for clinical users, as well as those that support them. We have had great success with the prior versions of radiology and cardiology PACS solutions, but the ability to offer an enterprise wide PACS, with specific clinical toolsets, provides our customers with a single solution to support all users. The logical and serial progression for the new combined platform prompted 7x categorization, leading us to where we are today.

Synapse 7.2 is More Robust than Ever

So, what should users expect from Synapse 7.2? A great deal! Synapse 7.2 delivers a host of workflow enhancements to support radiology, cardiology, and IT staff.

Notable enhancements to specific clinical areas of development include: ‘Missing series’ alerts to simplify reading protocols; Synchronized scrolling and stacking for Mammography reading and ‘image not viewed’ alerts for digital breast tomosynthesis reading; Customizable series picker and protocol panel placement for cardiology and diagramming improvements across non-invasive and cardiac cath affords more productive cardiology reporting.

In addition, users will find multiple integration enhancements within Synapse PACS 7.2. Examples include full support for Epic’s Hyperdrive and native DICOM TLS encryption support. We’ve also continued integration of third-party AI imaging algorithms and API support to provide comprehensive AI packages across a wide range of specialties. Finally, we’ve also continued focused development within the Synapse enterprise imaging portfolio, specifically between Synapse PACS 7.2 and Synapse VNA to provide the complete patient picture across multiple imaging services lines, beyond radiology and cardiology, through a powerful, consolidated viewing platform. Fujifilm’s pioneering web based PACS has remained an industry leader for more than two decades, with architectural successes, innovation investments, and customer collaboration ingrained into each new release. At its core, Synapse PACS’ high-tech architecture remains aligned with an ever-changing market and transforms with the shifting clinical and technical demands presented by today’s healthcare environment.

Current customers can read about all the advancements in our product announcement here.

Schedule your RSNA 2022 demo here.