Overview

The Communicator Suite™ is a collection of software components that may be combined in multiple configurations to meet the specific needs of the customer. The use of configurable components also allows Communicator Suite™ to be easily and economically expanded to meet the needs of a growing practice.

Secure HTTPS connections employing Public Key Cryptography (PKC) and a proprietary messaging protocol are used for all network connections whether they use the local area network or the Internet. Patient identifying information is additionally encrypted using a strong encryption algorithm for maximum security.

The major components of Communicator Suite™ are:

• Communicator Gateway
• Communicator Server (Basic and Standard Editions)
• Communicator Central Server
• Communicator Workstation
• Communicator Mobile Workstation

Communicator Gateway

Two types of Communicator Gateway are required to form a direct link between Imaging Centers. A Gateway SCP (Storage Class Provider) is required at   the Satellite Clinic or Referring Clinic, while a Gateway SCU (Storage Class User) is required at the Receiving Imaging Center /Clinic.

The Gateway SCP accepts patient studies directly from one or more DICOM modalities or an existing DICOM PACS and automatically forwards them to a remote Gateway SCU, or to the Communicator Central Server via the Internet.  Studies may be sent to one or more destinations by specifying a pre-defined AE Title at the modality or PACS during the association. The Gateway SCP uses this information to determine the destination address for the study and what action to perform when it arrives at its destination.

The Gateway SCU may be configured as a Server or as a Client depending upon the local requirements. A Server configuration is required if the Receiving Imaging Center will automatically accept incoming studies and forward them directly to the PACS. A Client configuration is required if the Imaging Center must pull studies from the Communicator Central Server.

The Server configuration listens for incoming connections from a Gateway SCP and after authentication, stores the transferred study in a buffer before forwarding the study to the designated destination PACS. The Server configuration requires a more robust, secure network configuration in the Receiving center, since the network is accessible from the Internet.

The Client configuration periodically polls the Communicator Central Server on the Internet, for studies that are addressed to it and downloads them. The downloaded studies are then automatically forwarded to an existing DICOM PACS. Once transferred to the PACS, the studies are available for review as if they had been acquired from a local modality. The Client configuration does not require such a secure network configuration in the Receiving center, since only outgoing Internet connections are made.

Communicator Server

The Communicator Server resides in the Trusted Zone of the Local Area Network (LAN) of the account. The Communicator Server is only accessible from within the Trusted Zone and is NOT directly accessible from the Internet for HIPAA compliance reasons. However, the server may be accessible from remote network segments, such as an office building, provided that the network routing is implemented correctly.

The Communicator Server hosts several functional modules that are responsible for authenticating the server with ConnexMD, managing DICOM study acquisition and diagnostic review from attached workstations.

• Authentication Client
• DICOM Storage Class Provider (SCP)
• Application Server (HTTPS)

The Communicator Server periodically authenticates itself with the Connex Authentication Server via the Internet. The authentication process serves as a “heartbeat” to ensure that the Communicator Server is functioning correctly. If the “heartbeat” is lost, the server administrator is notified by email so that corrective action can be taken.

The Communicator Server will operate normally on the LAN for a predefined grace period if the Internet connection is lost for some reason. However, if Communicator Server is unable to authenticate with the Connex Authentication Server within this grace period, all workstations will be disabled until authentication is successful. However,  the Communicator Server will continue to accept input from imaging modalities.

The DICOM SCP accepts patient studies directly from one or more DICOM modalities or an existing DICOM PACS and automatically imports them into the local study database.  The study images are stored in a repository on the Communicator Server.

The Application Server implements the rules that govern access to patient study data from client workstations. Workstations authenticate with the Application Server to validate licenses and determine the options available to that workstation. Once the workstation has been successfully authenticated, users may log-on to the workstation provided that they have a valid user account on the server. User access privileges are determined by authenticating the user on the server during the log-on process.

The Basic Edition Server supports only two modality inputs and a single workstation, whereas the Standard Edition is limited only by the host hardware performance.

Communicator Central Server

The Communicator Central Server is located in a physically secure; climate controlled Data Center and is connected to the Internet backbone using fiber optic connections to three individual ISPs for maximum redundancy and up-time.

The Communicator Central Server is used as a temporary study repository in support of the Read Anywhere™ and Digital Referral capabilities of Communicator.

The Communicator Central Server behaves as a specialized HTTPS server that only accepts connections from authenticated Communicator servers and authenticated Communicator Mobile Workstations.

Studies that have been forwarded to the Communicator Central Server are accessible by authenticated users from any location with an Internet connection using a Communicator Mobile Workstation. Alternatively, the studies may be retrieved automatically by a Gateway Client and forwarded to a local DICOM PACS.

Communicator Workstation

The Communicator Workstation is a fully featured diagnostic review workstation for multi disciplinary clinical use. The Communicator Workstation retrieves clinical images from the server and displays them in their native DICOM format. The acquisition information, including scaling, that is contained in the DICOM file header is preserved and is accessible at all times. Dynamic images, such as Ultrasound cineloops are re-played at the acquisition rate unless overridden by the reviewer.

As well as general diagnostic review capabilities, including measurements and reporting, Communicator Workstation also features comprehensive diagnostic review capabilities tailored specifically for Cardiology. These capabilities include Stress Echo Review and a fully configurable Measurement, Calculation and Reporting Package. Clinical reporting packages for other clinical specialties are planned for inclusion in the near future.

Communicator Mobile Workstation

The Communicator Mobile Workstation provides the same diagnostic review capabilities as the Communicator Workstation including the retrieval and display of native format images.  The Communicator Mobile Workstation also provides the same measurement and reporting capabilities of the Communicator Workstation. In fact, modifications to the study report are automatically propagated to the Communicator Central Server so that finalization, etc. can be performed away from the office.

However, in order to comply with HIPAA guidelines, the mobile workstation does not support export of studies to CD-R, forwarding of studies to other on-line databases or preserving a local copy of the study data.