Free readiness check

Where do you stand?

Answer 25 questions from across the ten imaging informatics domains. When you finish, you see your score and how you did in each domain. 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 data-export terms in the contract before signing it

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

At the project retrospective after go-live, the team finds several open defects that no one owns, and its members are about to be released to other work. What should closure require?

Close the open defects as accepted risks, since the system is liveKeep the whole project team assigned until every defect is fixedHand each open defect to a named operational owner as part of closureRecord the defects in the lessons-learned report and close the project

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, but the signed support and maintenance agreement says nothing about response times. 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 emailHave the response commitment added to the agreement by signed amendmentRaise 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

Which provision belongs in a service level agreement for a PACS?

Vendor escalation contacts, listed without any time targetsThe list of DICOM SOP classes the PACS supportsThe price per study stored over the contract termA measurable uptime target, how it is measured, and the remedy for a miss

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

After training on a new reporting workflow, technologists rate the class highly, but the rate of studies sent to the wrong worklist does not change. What does this tell the training lead?

The training worked, so the errors must come from a software defectHigh ratings do not show that learners changed how they do the taskA longer version of the class will fix the errors, since learners liked itA written knowledge test should replace the error rate as the measure

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 DICOM and tied to an order and accession numberRadiology 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. Which property of this content most affects the storage plan?

Most objects are structured reports of measurements, which are smallMost objects are single-frame images similar in size to CT slicesMany objects are multiframe cine loops, which make studies largeCardiology studies have shorter retention periods than radiology studies

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 content inventory and the retention 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 a legal hold or a longer rule still requires keeping them

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

Which list contains only technical safeguards under the HIPAA Security Rule?

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. What should the team do first?

Order a replacement laptop with a larger encrypted driveAsk the police to recover the laptop before taking any other stepIssue a remote wipe and close the matter once the wipe is confirmedReport a security incident and assess which patient data was exposed

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

Under Canada's PIPEDA, what generally decides whether a private-sector organization may use personal information for a purpose other than the one it was collected for?

Whether the information is stored on servers located inside CanadaWhether the organization encrypts the information while it is storedWhether the individual consents to the new purposeWhether the information is still within its required 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 a restricted segment 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 changedA visual check of a test pattern by the reading radiologistA 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, which maintains HL7 v2, CDA, and FHIRThe 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 CT examinations should be performed and what each CT report must document. 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 require its actors in vendor contractsApprove 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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