All this meant unnecessary staff activity and avoidable delays on the way toward a rapid diagnosis, which has been the basic requirement for targeted therapy ever since reliable, sophisticated electronic systems became ready for the market due to technological progress.

Last but not least, increased environmental awareness called for a move away from the film-screen system based on silver compounds, which had been in use for decades, along with film chemistry and disposal.

Also, a further reduction in radiation burden was an increasing challenge.

The solution to all these problems was identified as being the gradual implementation of an integrated full version of RIS-PACS (RIS = Radiology Information System, PACS = Picture Archiving and Communication System). The fact that such a substantial intervention in administration could be implemented smoothly at the secondlargest hospital in Vienna, despite full clinical routine, is not only due to the several months of preparation and training for staff but also to the highly motivated employees in all the departments concerned and dependable advice provided by GE Healthcare.

RIS-PACS and speech recognition speed up the procedure of any high-quality radiological examination, achieving a therapeutically useful gain in time for clinicians and patients, so they make a valuable contribution on the way to ensuring satisfied patients.