S. Nissen-Meyer, L. König, M. Reiser Maintaining Database Consistency in an Integrated, Heterogeneous HIS-RIS-PACS Environment Proceedings of the 17th International Congress and Exhibition on Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (CARS 2003), London, UK, 25–28 June 2003 (bib)
	An integrated heterogeneous system of HIS-RIS-PACS, modalities and image distribution must imply that all data common to all or to a subset of the environment components be consistent and compatible in their structure and their content. It is not sufficient to guarantee that all interface data formats comply with definitions and various standards. Just as important is the common semantic understanding of the data content in the various interface and database fields. One of the subproblems connected to this general requirement is that the identification criteria of all data objects must be consistent within all components. We have developed a mechanism and implemented a prototype tool to check the correctness of the set of identification criteria associated with the essential data objects within our hospital information system (HIS), radiology information system (RIS) and picture archive and communication system (PACS). Our goal was to demonstrate the feasibility and necessity of employing such encompassing tools in a HIS-RIS-PACS environment. From application of this prototype, we found discrepancies in consistency varying between 0.14 % and 8 % of the amount of data records in the database, depending on the type of inconsistency. This makes it mandatory to develop and employ such tools within commercially available product spectrums of RIS and PACS.
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