The GW Hospital re-located into a new facility in August 2002. The new Department is completely filmless, except for occasional analog mammograms for specific indications. PACS has had a huge impact on patient care and resident education. There are work stations for interpreting and viewing images throughout the hospital and out-patient areas. Web-access is also available for all our studies so attending back-up coverage is readily available after hours, and clinical conferences held for example in conference rooms throughout the medical center may access images.

The new department has allowed us to consolidate image interpretation into subspecialty reading rooms that are very near each other and near the modalities themselves. The interventional suites are on the second floor just over the main department, adjacent to the OR and cardiac catheterization labs. Faculty offices are also close by on the first floor. One of the unforeseen benefits of the PACS system has been to make the work flow more efficient and allow more time for teaching "at the film alternator". Of course there are no alternators, but one-on-one teaching and interaction over current cases is one of the most important parts of the residents' educational experience.

The Department has virtually all new equipment installed in mid-2002 through mid-2003. There are 3 state-of-the art interventional suites (Philips). One is a bi-plane room for for neuro-interventional procedures. There are 2 Siemens digital fluoroscopy rooms, and a wide range of routine X-ray rooms, digital mammography units, and intra-operative fluoroscopy equipment. The department has 7 ultrasound rooms, mainly with very recent ATL/Philips units. Experience in US includes general, breast, OB, and vascular. There are 3 all purpose nuclear medicine SPECT gamma cameras (all Philips), a GE SPECT/CT installed in 2008, and a GE PET/CT installed in 2007. The latter has a 16 detector scanner, and is used for routine CT studies when not performing PET/CT scans.  Besides the SPECT/CT and PET/CT units, the Department has 3 other on-site niche CT units: GE 64 detector scanner for peripheral and coronary CTA, GE 8 detector scanner with CT fluoroscopy for interventional procedures and ablations, and a Philips extra large bore 2 detector scanner for therapy planning. An electron beam scanner used for coronary calcium scoring is available 2 blocks away at Washington Circle as part of our affiliation with the Heart Check screening center. CT is one of the busiest areas in the Department with near 40,000 studies per year being perfomed. The Department operates 2 MRI units (GE Echospeed and Twinspeed) and has developed a very successful cardiovascular MRI program jointly with the Cardiology Division in the Department of Medicine. There is a long history of collegial collaboration in Nuclear Cardiology, and the same principles have applied as Cardiac MRI evolved at GW. The Hospital will be installing a third outpatient MRI unit, which is under-construction with an anticipated opening date of November 2008.