Technologies related to PACS are the fastest growing component of radiology medical systems.
PACS typically operates on a local area network or a dedicated wide area network using fast communication technologies, mainly because of the bandwidth requirements. The average radiology study is approximately 30Mbytes in size, and the size is expected to increase as faster imaging modalities with greater resolution are introduced. Lossy compression is usually not used for diagnostic images because standards for acceptable image degradation have not been established. With a mobile population and patients seeking second opinions, it is common for hospitals to exchange patient records, including radiology images. In the past, this was done using film and the mail.