PEPconnect

syngo.Plaza and Plaza Web - a technologists' introduction to Siemens PACS

This web based training is designed to provide all imaging technologist with relevant information to enhance and improve their clinical knowledge of the syngo.plaza PACS system.

This module will focus on the features and functions of the software required to successfully utilize syngo.plaza in a clincal environment.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Navigate the Patient Browser
- Utilize the tools within the study viewer 
-  Edit Patient Exams
- Identify differences between syngo.plaza client and syngo.plaza web.

syngo®.Plaza and Plaza Web a technologists' introduction to Siemens PACS   This web based training is designed to provide all imaging technologist with relevant information to enhance and improve their clinical knowledge of the syngo.plaza PACS system. This module will focus on the features and functions of the software required to successfully utilize syngo.plaza in a clincal environment.    Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to: Navigate the Patient Browser   Utilize the tools within the study viewer   Edit Patient Exams   Identify differences between syngo.plaza client and syngo.plaza web  To start syngo.plaza, double-click the syngo.plaza icon on your desktop. or choose Programs > syngo.plaza from the Windows start menu.   The log on screen will appear. Enter your user name and password. To confirm, click ok or press the enter key.   syngo.plaza starts up.  The first thing you will see is the patient browser. In this section we will discuss three main functions of the patient browser. The Patient List Window The Patient List Views Searching for Patient Exams         syngo®.plaza provides different views to display data in the Patient List. You can switch between the views. In the Study View, a list item is created for each study. In the Patient View, the patients are listed in the upper part of the display area. The studies relating to the patient selected above are shown in the central part, and the series belonging to the selected study are shown in the lower part.   Searching for patient exams in syngo.plaza can be performed by using a filter search or a query search. It is important to note the difference between a Filtered Search and a Query Search.  A filtered search is one that is performed in the "online" database of patients. An online database contains only exams that are immediately available for viewing. The amount of exams or size of the online database depends upon the memory configuration your site has. Please check with your Administrator. A query search is one that is performed in the "Long Term Archive" often referred to as "LTA". The LTA database contains exams that are in a "remote" or offline status and goes back several years. In order to view these exams a user needs to fetch or pull them into the online database.   The Patient List can be filtered by multiple criteria. Click the add new criterion (1) or remove criterion (2) icons to add a new filter criterion entry field or remove a displayed filter criterion entry field.   Click the blue arrow (3) on the right of the criterion´s description, and select the required type of criterion from the drop down list. Enter the values of the search criteria into the customized fields (4), and click the search icon (5). The patient list displays only data that match all filter criteria. Multiple Criteria can be added to any Filtered Search. The more that are added, the more refined or narrow the search will be.  NOTE: It is best to avoid open ended searches. An example of an open ended search would be to search for all dates and all modalities. Open ended searches will result in the system taking an extremely long time to display the search results. Examples of Filtering Criteria are: Patient ID or Medical Record Number Patient Name Exam Date and Modality Exam “Accession” or Study Number NOTE: The actual amount and type of criteria available to search by is determined by your site Administrator. Using syngo.plaza you can request images from the long term archive or from another computer.  To request data from the archive or from another computer:   Click the Query/Retrieve icon in the tool bar, OR Select a patient entry from the patient list and click the Selective Query icon. The Query/Retrieve examinations dialog box opens. NOTE: The selective query option only works for patients that are already listed in the patient list. Selecting this option automatically fills in all the patient demographics data.   In the search window first select the source database (1) Enter the information in the appropriate field(s) (2) Click the Query button (3) Select the exam(s) you wish to view and then click the “Get” button (4). After loading images into the syngo plaza viewer they can be manipulated in several ways. in this section we will discuss image navigation, and tools. Included will be the study viewer, the patient jacket, tool cards, the token view, corner & context menus, smart select star, windowing, scrolling and changing layouts. Images can be loaded into the viewer in several ways.  Select patients, examinations, or series from the patient list. You can select multiples by holding the control or shift buttons and selecting with the mouse arrow.   Click the Load Images to Viewer icon,  OR Drag-and-drop the required list item to the Viewer display area of the task card OR Double-click the list item. The images are loaded into the display area of the viewer. The viewer task card is moved to the foreground. Note: You can also load just a single series by drag and drop from the token view, double click on a thumbnail, or by double click on the series line in the patient list. The study viewer window is divided into several areas. Roll over the highlighted areas below to identify the different components of the patient list window. The Patient Jacket window provides you with all the required information about previous procedures of a patient for further processing. All available studies from the selected patient are quoted in the patient data field. Selected studies can be loaded via context menu. Clicking on the refresh button updates the list. In the content tabs all available RIS reports, structured reports and presentation states of the selected study are displeayed. The tokens represent the series or images of a selected study.       To use the tools simply single click on an icon. Many of the tools work in a toggle on toggle off manner. 1st click to activate, 2nd click to de-activate. In the viewer, icons are available in two tool palettes for fast access. The setting of icons in the tool palettes can be configured according to your individual needs.       Within the viewer, syngo.plaza displays a token view window representing thumbnail pictures of the series or  images within a study. The token view can also be configured for individual user preferences. Review the checklist below to see the basics of the token view window.   Token View Window Checklist Click here to review the checklist. Checklist TitleChecklist TypeChecklist ContentStep 1HTML Upon initial login the plaza viewer will display the Token window, the Tool window and the Workflow window in an open position.  Step 2HTML Based upon your viewing preference, you can display or hide each window by clicking on the Tokens, Tools, or Workflow tabs at the bottom of the viewer screen.  In the example below, the Token view tab was selected to hide the window. Now the viewer looks like this.  Step 3HTML Observe that the tokens displayed will correspond with the study loaded into each viewer. Step 4HTML The eyeglasses in the bottom right corner of the tokens indicate that a series/image is loaded or not loaded into the viewer.  Shaded = Loaded. Outlined = Not Loaded.   Step 5HTML When a token is double-clicked, an overview of that series opens up in a re- sizeable window. Since this is an overview, you cannot display image text or perform any measurements. Scrolling and window leveling is allowed. Step 6HTML The Tokens can be displayed in 1, 2, or 3 rows as highlighted. Step 7HTML You can assign up to 4 Token-useful tools on the Token’s Tool Card. The tools can be configured by right mouse clicking on the Token area. Step 8HTML To make other configuration changes to the Token View tab, go to the settings tool in the viewer. Then navigate to the Token View tab.  Step 9HTML Here the Token Text can be configured. Step 10HTML Here the Selection and Display colors can be set. syngo.plaza provides image manipulation tools within each image by utlizing Context and Corner menus. Pressing the right mouse button opens the Context Menu. It offers a specific selection of functions adapted to the situationin which you are  working.  In the viewer, there is the additional possibility of calling functions from the Corner Menu of image segments. It allows you to call functions without losing the focus on the image. Move the mouse pointer to an image corner to display the Corner Menu.   NOTE: In most cases the tools in the context and corner menus will be pre-set by your site Admin and you may or may not have the privilege to change them. Depending on your configuration, the Smart Select Star offers either four or eight functions. To call a function, keep the right mouse button pressed, and drag it to the respective peak of the star. Smart Select Expert Mode reduces mouse clicks and movements even further. To call functions in Expert Mode, keep the right mouse button pressed and move the mouse to the direction the respective function is assigned to the Smart Select star, and release the mouse button. The function is activated without opening Smart Select. NOTE:  As with the other tools those in the smart select menu and the expert mode will be pre-set by your site Admin and you may or may not have the privilege to change them. Further manipulation of images is possible within syngo.plaza. Windowing adjusts the brightness and contrast of the image. You can window the image interactively with the mouse or apply predefined mode-specific window values. To window an image interactively:  Move the mouse over the image you wish to window, and hold down the center mouse button. Move the mouse pointer horizontally to change the contrast (window width), and vertically to change the brightness (window center).      To scroll through images, you can: Use the scroll wheel of the mouse. Use the vertical scroll bar at the edge of the display area. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard. Scroll through an image stack image by image by clicking the dog-ears (see image at right), or by using the mouse wheel.   It is possible within syngo.plaza to change the display mode. Images are arranged either one on top of the other as a series stack (one series per segment) OR one image next to the other as an image stripe (one image per segment). You can easily recognize image stacks by the dog-ear in the top right corner of the image. To switch between stack mode and stripe mode, click the respective icon in the layout palette. Series Stack Image Stripe NOTE:  Double clicking on any image or series segment will “Blow Up” to a 1x1 size a second double click will reset the image.     Correcting Patient Data   Patient Data can be corrected within syngo.plaza. In syngo.plaza a patient is uniquely identified by the patient ID and the patient name. Incorrect diagnosis can occur because of incorrect assignment of image data and patients.  When this occurs: Always correct patient data in the HIS/RIS ("master") first. Only then correct this patient data in the PACS accordingly, if necessary. Correct patient demographics very carefully. When correctlng patient data, always make sure that two patients are not inadvertently merged. Only authorized users should be allowed to and have the privileges to change patient exam data!!   On occasion there may be times when unwanted images need to be removed from an examination. In order to remove them, perform the following steps:      1. Load the exam into the viewer.  2. Switch to the series stripe mode.    3. Select the undesirable image(s).   4. Click the cut image icon. 5. Click the save changes icon.   syngo.plaza allows you to correct patient demographics that were manually entered incorrectly at the modality unit. In cases where patient demographics were entered incorrectly manually at the modality unit, perform the following steps for correction: 1. In the Patient List, mark the relevant patient (to correct the data of all studies), or the relevant study (to correct the data of that study only).  No images of the selected patient or the selected studies should have been loaded in to the viewer.  "  2.   Click the Rename icon on the tool bar.  3. The Rename Study dialog box opens with the current data relating to the patient displayed.    4. Enter the information that needs correction then click the OK button. 5. All studies and series of the patient are saved in your database with the input data and are given the status Renamed. In cases where the patient was incorrectly imaged under a different patient's information, perform the following steps for correction: 1.  Load the exam into the the viewer. 2.   Click the Save As icon in the tool bar.  3. The patient demographics dialogue box appears.     4. Enter the correct information into all applicable fields. 5. Ensure that the new button is selected then click OK. 6. A window stating "successfully created a new study" will appear. 7. Open the patient list once again. 8. Select the incorrect exam and click the delete button.   9. Confirm the deletion.   syngo.plaza is also available as a web based client. There are some differences between the standard client and the web client. The syngo.plaza standard client has additional functionality on the patient list lower tool bar related to filming, deletion and renaming patients. syngo.plaza Web lower tool bar   syngo.plaza Client lower tool bar Marks functionalities only available at the regular client.     The syngo.plaza standard client has additional functionality in the viewer user interface as well related to creating layouts and the availabilty of tools on the tool palettes. syngo.plaza Web   syngo.plaza Client The patient jacket in the syngo.plaza standard client has more options related to reporting.   syngo.plaza Web syngo.plaza Client   Here are the differences between the available tools under each tool box tab for syngo.plaza Web and syngo.plaza Client. syngo.plaza Web syngo.plaza Client     syngo.plaza Web syngo.plaza Client     syngo.plaza Web syngo.plaza Client     syngo.plaza Web syngo.plaza Client     syngo.plaza Web syngo.plaza Client     syngo.plaza Web syngo.plaza Client     The syngo.plaza standard client has some additional confuguration settings available under General Settings. syngo.plaza Web syngo.plaza Client       The syngo.plaza standard client also has some additional configuration settings for the patient browser. syngo.plaza Web syngo.plaza Client       syngo.plaza Web syngo.plaza Client       You should now be able to: Navigate the Patient Browser   Utilize the tools within the study viewer   Edit Patient Exams   Identify differences between syngo.plaza client and syngo.plaza web  Select each of  the highlighted areas below to identify the different components of the patient list window.

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