Collect the infrastructure facts before changing an imaging environment.

Use this checklist to prepare a medical imaging IT request involving PACS infrastructure, DICOM network paths, servers, storage, switches, backups, connectivity, and day-to-day systems support.

Send Imaging IT Details Medical Imaging IT Support

What To Gather

One clear technical picture is better than a long chain of guesses.

The goal is to identify the hardware, network path, vendors, operating constraints, and recovery expectations around the site. It is not a request for patient data or a substitute for the modality or PACS vendor's own documentation.

A photo of a rack label, switch model, or non-patient diagram is often more useful than a generic description of the problem.

1. Site and Vendor Map

Practice or imaging-center location, operating hours, support contact, and acceptable outage window
Modality types and counts, PACS, RIS, archive, managed-service, and network vendor names
Which vendor owns each system and who can approve changes or provide credentials

2. Server, Storage, and Backup

Server and storage model numbers, age, warranty state, virtualization platform, and known alerts or failures
Application or archive role, storage growth concerns, drive or controller history, and available spare parts
Backup product, target location, last known restore test, recovery expectation, and who owns the backups

3. Switches and Network Path

Switch models, uplink speeds, ports in use, optics, cabling, Wi-Fi boundaries, and internet or VPN handoffs
Non-patient topology showing modality, workstation, server, archive, vendor, and remote-support paths
Known VLANs, IP ranges, firewall ownership, intermittent links, packet loss, latency, or recent changes

4. Current Symptom

What is slow, unavailable, intermittent, or changing; when it began; and the last known normal time
Who is affected, whether imaging can continue, and any hard deadline or scheduled maintenance window
Messages, screenshots, alert text, or logs with patient information removed before sharing

5. Next Decision

Whether the practice needs a repair, server refresh, switch refresh, network investigation, documentation, or vendor coordination
Budget range, equipment lead-time constraint, preferred vendors, warranty requirement, and desired support model
What must be documented for the practice, outside IT team, or application vendor after the work is complete

6. Information Boundaries

Use the first conversation to define whether the work can be scoped with non-patient technical details
Do not grant access to systems containing electronic protected health information until the required scope and agreements are in place
Confirm the practice's own security, privacy, and vendor requirements before any production change

Why These Details Matter

DICOM and PACS environments are systems of systems.

DICOM includes network communication support, but each deployed environment also depends on the site network, server capacity, storage, access controls, vendor contracts, backup path, and change process. Gather the surrounding infrastructure facts first, then bring the correct vendor into the conversation when the issue reaches their boundary.

Next Step

Send the non-patient technical picture.

Web Tech can review the inventory, symptoms, infrastructure constraints, and vendor boundaries, then help identify the practical next step.

Discuss Imaging IT