Preserving digital images for legal proceedings.

The legal principles governing the use of radiologic images in court and other legal proceedings were developed before the introduction of computers in radiology and nuclear medicine imaging equipment. Modern digital images present a wide variety of new concerns that are not adequately addressed by the principles used by most lawyers and courts. This article discusses the most important of these new concerns, such as being able to prove that an image has not been altered and being able to prove that the hardware and software used to create it were scientifically reliable.

Six Sigma: not for the faint of heart.

Six Sigma is an excellent quality and performance improvement tool. Like any tool, the results of using it are highly dependent on whether you use it with competence and on the right problem. This article will help you decide if your problem is well-suited for a Six Sigma approach and will suggest the optimum approach for planning and implementing Six Sigma methodology.

Using Six Sigma to improve the film library.

The film library of a film-based radiology department is a mission-critical component of the department that is frequently underappreciated and under-staffed. A poorly performing film library causes operational problems for not only the radiology department, but for the institution as a whole. Since Six Sigma techniques had proved successful in an earlier CT throughput improvement project, the University of Texas M.