Up until a little while ago, we upgraded to new PACS releases rather late in the game. Of course, this may have meant we gave up a nifty new feature or two, but it also meant the upgrade we got was tried and tested, and worked as expected for us. This changed when our company was eager to start using Intelerad’s mammo viewer. We heard the risks about it being beta software, and the decision was made to press ahead with it. I have covered the outcome of that decision already, but let me reiterate that we have (hopefully) learned our lesson as a company, and will be extremely hesitant to be on the cutting edge in the future.

Intelerad stepped up to the plate (perhaps not as quickly as we would have liked) to deal with the challenges we faced as a result of that upgrade, and has been doing quite a few little and big upgrades to get us back to an efficient workflow. The backend changes are difficult for us to test, but thankfully, they have thus far been trouble free. It is the frontend changes with Inteleviewer I want to touch on. Prior to this whole issue, we generally rolled out an upgrade to all the Rads at once. And luckily, everything went smoothly. We have adjusted that process, and now designate particular reading rooms as test beds. As it turns out, we made this adjustment in the nick of time.

I feel I should step back for a moment and state that Intelerad is trying really hard to get us upgrades that solves various particular issues. For all I know, we are getting these upgrades as soon as they are done being coded (with some brief internal testing). Considering the situation, this is an acceptable short term situation. Anytime something is sped through the process, you gain time, but you may give up quality (although you may not, risks must be weighed).

We received one build of the software that promised many significant fixes, and we were very impressed with those fixes when we did our initial testing prior to upgrading any of the Rad stations. However, during that initial testing, we also found a pretty nasty bug that had made its way into the software. It was obvious enough that we were able to find it without involving a Rad for testing. Upon bringing this to Intelerad’s attention, it was verified, and a fix was provided in short order. We proceeded to retest the fixed version, and found no other noticeable issues, so we upgraded a Rad station. A couple Rads rotated through, and were happy with the improvements. And then a Rad noticed a change in behavior that was not desirable. I hesitate to call it a bug, it may have been, or maybe it was by design, but either way, it was a change that was met with frustration. It was only noticeable during particular workflow, that only some Rads follow, which is why the first couple of Rads had no problems. We have had to hold off on the rollout pending a resolution to this issue, which we hope comes quickly, as we are anxious to get the Rads using this much improved version.

Every company is different, but I strongly suggest there be some sort of testing phase prior to upgrading any critical system. A little time spent up front can save a whole slew of time spent cleaning up a potentially avoidable mess.

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