Challenges to rolling out 3D breast tomosynthesis

3D breast tomosynthesis presents significant challenges
for the IT department charged with implementation

Jude Mosley, Sentara manager of IT, manages the PACS system in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia regions for Sentara Healthcare headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia. The 127-year non-profit integrated healthcare system with a mission to improve health every day operates 12 hospitals, urgent care centers, advanced and specialty imaging centers, home health, hospice, rehab centers and medical transport services. Sentara is supported by multiple medical groups including 3,800 providers and 30,000 employees. Sentara also offers health plans through its Optima Health insurance covering 455,000 people. Mosley started as a radiology technologist and has practiced as a Rad Tech with every modality including, MRI, CT, mammography, diagnostics, and angiography. She was radiology director for Sentara from 1993 to 2002 when she moved over to IT where she has been managing PACS since 2002. 

AHA survey highlights progress/barriers to interoperability

PARCA eNews – Aug. 15, 2015 – A recent ONC analysis of a nationwide survey of non-federal acute care hospitals conducted by the American Hospital Association (AHA) highlighted the near universal adoption of EHRs by hospitals and significant increases in hospitals’ electronically exchanging health information with outside providers compared to past years.

HHS awards more than $38 million in grants for interoperability

PARCA eNews – Aug. 1, 2015 – The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced 20 awardees for three health information technology (health IT) grant programs totaling about $38 million. The grants are aimed at creating an interoperable learning health system that achieves better care, smarter spending and healthier people.

Survey finds nearly 60 percent of physicians are not ready for ICD-10

In a survey of nearly 1200 physicians conducted by Physicians Practice, an online trade publication for healthcare providers, 59.6 percent described themselves as either “not very close” or “not at all ready” to transition the ICD-10 code set. 

Quest Medical Imaging system approved for imaging tumors during surgery

PARCA eNews – Aug. 27, 2015 – Netherland-based Quest Medical Imaging won FDA approval for its nanoparticle imaging system that highlights tumors during surgery, allowing the surgeon to more clearly see tumor extent.

The system won FDA approval as a “drug-device combination,” as patients are injected with an agent that “lights up” when detected by the camera. The system allows visualization of tumor margins, detection of other tumors or metastases, localization of small malignancies and accurate identification of lymph nodes containing metastatic cancer cells during surgery.

Did incentives boost EHR adoption?

PARCA eNews – Aug. 3, 2015 – A new study has found that adoption of any EHR system may have increased by 7 percent above the level predicted due to the Meaningful Use incentives using one statistical analysis. 

The authors note, however, that the increase disappears under alternative statistical models and show that other factors played a role in the adoption of EHRs. The researchers at the Universities of Alabama, Indiana, and Johns Hopkins published their findings July 30 in the Journal of Medical Informatics Association JAMIA.

NHS announces long-term image management solution

PARCA eNews – Aug. 4, 2015 – City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust selected Agfa Healthcare Enterprise Imaging platform for the storage, exchange and access to medical images through the electronic patient record (EPR). It is the first enterprise-imaging platform to be implemented in the United Kingdom.