PACS Software: Personal PACS vs. Hospital PACS
Two different scales of the same idea, and they are not substitutes.
PACS software stores, retrieves and displays DICOM medical images. It exists as an institutional archive for a whole department, and as a personal archive one physician owns and carries. SoftDicom is the second kind.
What is PACS software?
PACS software is the category of software that stores, retrieves and displays DICOM medical images. It exists at two different scales: an institutional hospital PACS that archives every patient study for a whole department, and a personal PACS that one physician owns and carries.
Is SoftDicom PACS software, or a device?
Both — the DICOM viewer and personal PACS software run on a physical drive rather than being installed separately. It is sold outright as a one-time purchase rather than licensed annually, and the software, study database and storage all live on the same device. That is the practical difference behind the portability case.
How is SoftDicom’s PACS software different from a hospital PACS?
| Personal PACS (SoftDicom) | Hospital PACS | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | One physician | A whole department |
| What it archives | The cases you choose to keep | Every patient study |
| Where it lives | On a drive you carry | On institutional servers |
| Users | Single-physician, individual use | Shared, multi-user |
| Commercial model | One-time purchase | Licensed, typically annually |
| Network | Works fully offline | Network-dependent |
The two are not substitutes: SoftDicom does not replace a hospital PACS, and a hospital PACS does not give a physician a personal, portable copy of the cases they choose to keep. Where a team needs a per-lab or higher-capacity institutional deployment, that is quoted separately — including the per-lab model.
What imaging does SoftDicom’s PACS software support?
SoftDicom is DICOM compliant and works with modalities including CT, MRI, angiography and ultrasound. Studies exported from a hospital PACS as DICOM files can be imported into SoftDicom for personal reference and teaching.
Does it need a network connection?
No. SoftDicom works completely offline, with all data stored locally on the device — no internet or network connection is required to view or organise studies already on it. Studies can also arrive directly from a console over the device’s own DICOM listener, which is a local-network transfer rather than an internet one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can SoftDicom’s PACS software replace a hospital PACS?
No. SoftDicom is a personal PACS for physicians to store their interesting cases; a hospital PACS is for institutional archival of all patient studies. They serve different purposes and complement each other.
Is SoftDicom’s PACS software DICOM compliant?
Yes. It works with imaging modalities including CT, MRI, angiography and ultrasound.
Can I move studies from hospital PACS software into SoftDicom?
Yes. You can export DICOM files from a hospital PACS and import them into SoftDicom for personal reference and teaching.
Does SoftDicom’s PACS software work without an internet connection?
Yes. It works completely offline; all data is stored locally on the device.
Can more than one person use the same SoftDicom device?
SoftDicom supports multiple user accounts, though each physician typically prefers their own device for personal case management.
Your cases, on your own drive.
A personal PACS you buy once and carry, alongside whatever your institution runs.