A radiology information system (RIS) is a computerized database

Database

A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

 used by radiology

Radiology

Radiology is a medical specialty that employs the use of imaging to both diagnose and treat disease visualized within the human body. Radiologists use an array of imaging technologies to diagnose or treat diseases...

 departments to store, manipulate and distribute patient radiological data and imagery. The system generally consists of patient tracking and scheduling, result reporting and image tracking capabilities. RIS complements HIS (Hospital Information Systems)

Hospital information system

There are various titles and acronyms which all declare similar approaches to managing the information flow and storage in hospital routine services, as*Hospital Information System , or*Healthcare Information System, or...

 and is critical to efficient workflow to radiology practices.
Radiology information systems commonly support the following features:

• Patient Registration and scheduling
• Patient List Management
• Interface with modality via Worklist.
• Radiology Department workflow management
• Request and document scanning
• Result(s) Entry
• Reporting and printout
• Result(s) Delivery including faxing and e-mailing of clinical reports
• Patient Tracking
• Interactive Documents
• Technical Files Creation
• Modality and Material management.

In addition a RIS often supports the following:

• Appointment booking
• PACS workflow
• Custom report creation
• HL7 interfaces with a PACS
  Picture archiving and communication system
  A picture archiving and communication system is a medical imaging technology which provides economical storage of, and convenient access to, images from multiple modalities . Electronic images and reports are transmitted digitally via PACS; this eliminates the need to manually file, retrieve, or...
  
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