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Model
What This Guide Helps With
Troubleshooting Symbia Evo workstation, DICOM send, archive, RIS/PACS, worklist, or study transfer failures before repair escalation.
Step-by-Step Troubleshooting
Ensure Patient Safety First
Confirm the Symbia Evo is not actively acquiring a patient study before restarting workstations, disconnecting cables, or changing network connections.
If a study is in progress, coordinate with Nuclear Medicine staff before taking any action that could interrupt acquisition, reconstruction, or image transfer.
Expected outcome: Patient imaging and study data are protected before troubleshooting begins.
Confirm the Exact Communication Complaint
Ask the operator what failed and when it occurred.
Determine whether the issue involves:
- DICOM send failure
- Study not reaching PACS
- Archive failure
- RIS worklist not loading
- Patient demographics not importing
- Images stuck in queue
- Study transfer is slow
- Acquisition workstation cannot reach the network
- One destination failing or all destinations failing
Expected outcome: The issue is separated into workstation, network, DICOM destination, RIS, PACS, or archive workflow.
Check Whether Patient Images Are Safely Stored Locally
Confirm with the operator that the study is still available on the acquisition workstation or local system storage.
Do not delete, reprocess, or repeat studies until image status is verified.
Expected outcome: Existing patient data is protected before communication troubleshooting continues.
Check for Obvious Workstation Errors
Review the acquisition workstation screen for application errors, frozen software, warning messages, failed transfers, or pending jobs.
If the workstation application is responsive, note the exact error message before clearing or restarting anything.
Expected outcome: The failure message is captured for documentation and possible escalation.
Verify Network Cable and Physical Connection
Check that the Ethernet cable is securely connected at the acquisition workstation, network wall jack, switch port if visible, and any approved network interface point.
Look for damaged cables, loose connectors, or missing link lights.
Expected outcome: A loose or disconnected network path is corrected. If communication restores, confirm study transfer and stop.
Check Workstation Network Status
Confirm the workstation shows an active network connection.
Look for disconnected adapter status, disabled network connection, invalid IP address, or no network access.
Expected outcome: The workstation has a valid network connection before DICOM or RIS/PACS troubleshooting continues.
Confirm Whether Other Networked Devices Are Affected
Ask Nuclear Medicine or imaging staff whether other systems can send to PACS, receive worklist, or access the archive.
If multiple imaging systems are affected, involve IT, PACS, or network support before assuming a Symbia Evo fault.
Expected outcome: The issue is identified as either device-specific or part of a wider network/PACS outage.
Check DICOM Destination Selection
Verify the operator is sending to the correct destination, such as PACS, archive, processing workstation, or nuclear medicine review station.
Confirm that the failed study was not accidentally queued to the wrong destination.
Expected outcome: Incorrect destination selection is ruled out or corrected.
Review the Transfer Queue
Check whether studies are pending, failed, retrying, or blocked behind another failed transfer.
If the system allows safe resend or retry from the queue, retry only after confirming patient data is intact and the destination is correct.
Expected outcome: A stuck or failed transfer is identified and retried appropriately. If transfer succeeds, document and stop.
Confirm RIS Worklist Behavior
If the issue involves worklist, check whether the workstation can query RIS and whether scheduled patients appear correctly.
Confirm the date, modality, station name, location, or query filters are not limiting the displayed worklist.
Expected outcome: Worklist failure is separated from incorrect search filters or scheduling workflow.
Verify Date and Time
Check that the acquisition workstation date and time are correct.
Incorrect time settings can interfere with worklist queries, study matching, archive behavior, and troubleshooting logs.
Expected outcome: Time-related communication or matching problems are ruled out.
Check for Recent Changes
Ask whether there were recent changes to:
- Network drops
- IP address assignments
- PACS destination
- RIS interface
- Firewall rules
- Workstation replacement
- Software updates
- Department routing rules
- DICOM AE title, port, or host configuration
Expected outcome: The issue is linked to a recent system, network, or workflow change if applicable.
Test Basic Network Reachability if Available
If permitted by site policy and system access, use approved workstation tools to confirm whether the system can reach the DICOM destination, gateway, or server.
Do not make configuration changes without confirming the correct values with IT or PACS support.
Expected outcome: Network reachability is confirmed or the issue is escalated to IT/PACS with clear findings.
Check Archive or PACS System Status
Confirm whether the archive or PACS destination is online, accepting studies, and not in maintenance or downtime.
A receiving system problem can look like a nuclear medicine system failure.
Expected outcome: The receiving endpoint is verified before blaming the acquisition workstation.
Restart Only When Safe and Appropriate
If the acquisition workstation application is frozen or communication services appear unresponsive, coordinate with Nuclear Medicine staff before restarting the application or workstation.
Make sure no active acquisition, reconstruction, or transfer would be interrupted.
Expected outcome: A safe restart clears temporary software or communication lockups. If communication restores, confirm successful transfer and stop.
Verify Successful Study Transfer
After any corrective action, have staff confirm the study appears at the intended destination with correct patient demographics, image series, and accession information.
Expected outcome: The issue is resolved only after the receiving system confirms the study is present and usable.
If the Problem Persists
If power, workstation status, network connection, destination selection, transfer queue, worklist filters, and known IT/PACS issues have been ruled out, the problem may involve internal workstation software, DICOM configuration, network interface hardware, database services, or Siemens application-level communication.
The Symbia Evo should be removed from clinical use if studies cannot be safely acquired, stored, transferred, or matched to patient orders.
The device should be:
- Removed from service if clinical workflow or patient data integrity is affected
- Labeled Out of Service
- Escalated for Siemens service, PACS support, IT network support, or bench/workstation evaluation as appropriate
Knowing when to stop is proper troubleshooting. Do not perform unsupported DICOM configuration changes, software repairs, or database-level actions without the proper service access and authorization.
Clinical Use Tip
Do not troubleshoot communication failures during an active patient acquisition unless the system is already stopped or the clinical team has confirmed it is safe. Protect the acquired study first, then troubleshoot transfer, archive, or worklist issues.
Work Order Documentation (CCR Method)
CCR = Complaint, Cause, Resolution
Complaint
What was reported by the clinical staff.
Example:
"Nuclear Medicine reported that Symbia Evo studies were not transferring from the acquisition workstation to PACS after completion."
Cause
What was observed during troubleshooting.
Example:
"Found studies held in the transfer queue after confirming the workstation network cable and DICOM destination were correct; PACS connectivity was restored after safe workstation application restart."
Resolution
What action was taken.
Example:
"Restarted the acquisition workstation application with Nuclear Medicine approval, resent the queued study, confirmed image arrival in PACS, and returned the system to service."
Helpful Details to Include (If Known)
- Whether the issue affected DICOM send, RIS worklist, archive, or PACS transfer
- Exact error message or failed job status
- Whether the study remained stored locally
- Whether one study or all studies were affected
- Whether one destination or all destinations failed
- Network cable and link light status
- Workstation IP/network status
- PACS or RIS downtime confirmation
- Transfer queue status
- Whether resend was attempted
- Whether the study arrived successfully in PACS
- Final device status
Final Thought
Symbia Evo communication troubleshooting should protect patient data first, then move logically through workstation status, physical network checks, DICOM destination selection, queue status, and RIS/PACS availability. Escalation is appropriate when external causes have been ruled out or when patient study integrity could be affected. Clear CCR documentation helps show what failed, what was checked, and how the final clinical status was confirmed.
That is successful troubleshooting.