Workstations

Overview

In traditional imaging environments, workstations act as DICOM nodes paired with specialty DICOM viewers — advanced reading software for tasks beyond a standard diagnostic viewer.

The Avara Clinical Platform includes a built-in, web-based diagnostic DICOM viewer that is highly performant for most reading workflows. For many sites, that eliminates the need for separate workstation infrastructure entirely.

When your clinicians need capabilities the built-in viewer does not cover, Avara offers full, seamless workstation integration. Typical integrations connect viewers such as TeraRecon, Circle Cardiovascular Imaging, 3mensio, OsiriX, and similar tools — especially where the viewer provides specialty operations like vessel tracking, plaque analysis, advanced cardiac quantification, or other modality-specific tooling.

When to Use Workstations

Most organizations do not need workstations. Avara’s built-in viewer covers routine diagnostic reading for the majority of sites.

Reach for workstation integration only when a third-party viewer is required for a subspecialty workflow that depends on features outside Avara’s native viewer. For routine diagnostic reading, reporting, and patient-facing study access, the platform viewer is usually sufficient — no extra nodes, no gateway fees, no per-study streaming charges.

Workstation integration is optional and scales with how many readers need external viewers, not with every user in your organization.

How It Works

Workstations are enabled under Operations. When you turn them on, you select a cloud gateway size for your clinic. Avara provisions a dedicated cloud PACS node for your organization — a gateway that sits between your on-site or remote specialty viewers and studies stored in Avara. Each node is strictly isolated to your organization, with security controls designed to meet requirements stricter than HIPAA — so workstation traffic never commingles with other tenants.

Each workstation entry is registered per user — one reader, one workstation configuration, one worklist funnel into their viewer. Avara does not charge a per-user seat fee; instead, you size the gateway to match how many concurrent workstation users the clinic expects.

Studies assigned to a workstation user flow through standard DICOM query/retrieve into the viewer. You can apply additional filters — for example limiting worklist results by appointment type — so each reader sees only the studies relevant to their role or subspecialty.

DICOM Operations

Avara workstation integration supports industry-standard DICOM services:

• C-FIND — Query the worklist so the viewer discovers studies available to that workstation user
• C-MOVE — Retrieve and stream DICOM instances from Avara’s archive through the gateway to the viewer for reading

This is the same integration pattern specialty viewers expect from a local PACS — your viewer talks to an Avara-hosted DICOM node, not a legacy on-site archive.

Gateway Sizing and Pricing

Workstation pricing has two parts: a flat monthly gateway fee (one gateway per clinic) and a pay-per-use study read fee.

Gateway sizing

Gateway sizing is about the EC2 instance type provisioned for your clinic’s workstation node — not a monthly fee per workstation seat. Pick the tier based on how many workstation users you expect on that gateway.

Instance type

Monthly price

Recommended workstations

c6gn.medium

$35/month

1–3

c6gn.large

$70/month

4–8

c6gn.xlarge

$140/month

9–15

c6gn.2xlarge

$280/month

16–24

c6gn.4xlarge

$560/month

25–40

When workstations are activated, the selected tier is billed as a flat monthly gateway fee. Scale up the instance type as you add readers who need specialty viewers; there is no separate charge for registering each workstation user.

Per-study read fee

Each time a study is retrieved through the gateway for viewing — a C-MOVE that streams DICOM to the workstation — Avara charges $0.20 per study read. This covers the cost of streaming imaging data through the cloud node on our side.

Routine reading in Avara’s built-in viewer does not incur this fee; it applies to workstation integration traffic only.

Secure Connectivity with WireGuard

Many readers — especially remote radiologists reading from a laptop — need secure access to the workstation gateway without a traditional corporate VPN. Avara sets this up over an encrypted WireGuard tunnel between the reader’s machine and your organization’s workstation PACS node.

WireGuard creates a point-to-point encrypted tunnel over the public internet. Traffic between the reader’s viewer and Avara’s workstation node travels inside that tunnel, so DICOM query and retrieve operations are protected end to end. Compared with conventional site-to-site VPNs, WireGuard is typically lighter weight, easier to configure, and faster for sustained data transfer — while providing modern, audited cryptography that is appropriate for clinical connectivity.

There is no separate VPN appliance to maintain for workstation access. Each user connects with standard WireGuard client software.

Setting Up WireGuard

1. Install WireGuard on the reader’s machine — clients are available for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. Download from the official WireGuard installation page.
2. Open the Workstations tab in the Clinical Platform and download the .conf credentials file for that workstation user.
3. Launch the WireGuard client, import the configuration file (drag the .conf into the app or use the client’s import flow), and activate the tunnel.

Once connected, the reader’s specialty viewer has secure connectivity from their workstation to Avara’s workstation PACS node — worklist queries and study streaming proceed over the encrypted channel as if the viewer were on your imaging network.

Permissions and Support

Workstation and gateway configuration is managed by users with Can Manage PACS. See Inviting Users — Can Manage PACS for access requirements.

For gateway sizing, WireGuard rollout, or viewer-specific DICOM settings, the Avara team assists through provisioning and go-live — the same hands-on support model described for Rooms & PACS and on-prem servers.