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PACS Professional Certification through PARCA
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Certification is valuable for PACS professionals. Certification provides a roadmap for required skills and a baseline for evaluating available training programs, which can vary widely in terms of depth and scope of knowledge. The non-profit PARCA (PACS Administrators Registry and Certification Association) organization has provided this certification since early 2005. Several training institutions have adjusted their training programs to make sure all PARCA requirements are met and professionals are starting to use their titles (Certified PACS Associate, System Administrator and Interface Analyst).
As of March 2009, almost 400 professionals have passed the various PARCA exams. To get certified, membership of PARCA is required. Since the beginning, close to 1000 members have signed up.
An informal poll indicated that 88% of respondents felt that PACS administrator certification is important, and that 83% would potentially take a PACS administrator certification. It is hard to estimate the number of PACS administrators; a conservative estimate is at least 5000 as of today. Knowing that PACS still has to be installed in many installations, and taken into account the inherent turn-over, this potential group of professionals might easily reach 10,000 in the US alone over the next few years.
PARCA certification exams are taken on-line, which is one of the major reasons that it is ideally suitable to serve an international audience. The PARCA board reflects the intention to truly serve the international community as there are members from Australia, Canada and Singapore.
Certification will help PACS professionals master new skill sets in a consistent manner and also provide a standard that can be used by organizations seeking to hire these professionals. In particular with many professionals today looking for a career change, the certification is a great mechanism to demonstrate acquired skills. These skills are a mix of clinical and IT, and, depending on the specialization, concentrating on interfaces and/or workflow.
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We are pleased to announce that members of PARCA can receive free ITN subscriptions.
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