Integrating imaging with EHRs through the Cloud

In advance of next month’s Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) 2012 annual meeting, PARCA talked with K. Thomas Pickard of PACSGEAR. At SIIM, PACSGEAR  is announcing an upgrade to its popular MediaWriter technology to offer cloud-based open image exchange. In just 10 years PACSGEAR technology has been adopted by one in three U.S.hospitals. Thomas currently serves as PACSGEAR’s vice president of Marketing and Business Development. Previously he held roles at Emageon, eMed Technologies, and Thinking Machines. Thomas has an MBA from St. Mary’s College of California and has been working in healthcare IT for over 15 years.

Q. For those who may not be familiar with PACSGEAR, what do you do?

PACSGEAR essentially does two things: connect images to PACS and integrate them with EHRs. A new area of interest to your readers is the open image exchange.

PACS News Roundup

EMR use critical for documenting workflows 

Heart Rhythm Society Scientific Sessions
BOSTON – May 9, 2012 – It is critical to document workflows and develop a feasible adoption timeline when attempting to use EMRs to assist with pain points, stated Fred M. Kusumoto, MD, of the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville Electrophysiology and Pacing Services in Jacksonville, Fla., on May 9 during the 33rd annual scientific sessions of the Heart Rhythm Society. (More)

Medical imaging incident reporting system could boost patient safety

PHILADELPHIA – May 7, 2012 – From doctors who don't follow imaging protocols to hospitals that cut radiology staffing corners to save money, the dangers of radiation overexposure continue to dog healthcare. Researchers writing in the May edition of the Journal of the American College of Radiology said the healthcare system could improve radiation safety with a national incident reporting system for medical imaging. (More)

Opinion

RIS/PACS integration issues when performing multi-modality studies

When using a RIS, PACS and a voice recognition or traditional transcription reporting system from different vendors, many institutions are having integration issues with mapping the orders to the performed studies and resulting reports. These scenarios are well documented as part of the IHE scheduled workflow profiles; however, not every system is fully compliant with the information model, which covers the relationship between the orders, studies and reports.  (From time to time individually written articles that have been reviewed by the Advisory board of PARCA that are relevant to improving patient outcomes, workflow and productivity will be included in the PARCA Newsletter.) (More)

AHA blasted for 'Hail Mary pass' on meaningful use

WASHINGTON – May 03, 2012 – No sooner had the American Hospital Association submitted its comments on the proposed rule for Stage 2 meaningful use than they came under fire for "spurious" arguments on patient access to online information. “We know from the last two years of public debate on meaningful use that the association has really pushed back hard on the requirement around giving patients access to their health information electronically,” Christine Bechtel, vice president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, and a member of the federal Health IT Policy Committee, told Healthcare IT News. (More)

Hospital CIO survey shows connecting independents is priority

NEW JERSEY – April 25, 2012 – While a majority of hospital CIOs responding to a recent survey conducted by healthsystemCIO.com say they are participating in regional health or system-to-system information exchange efforts, they expressed disappointment with the slow and inconsistent progress.Twenty percent of respondents said that adoption rates have been disappointing, citing limited interest by providers and resource constraints as key factors, while just 17 percent noted that they’ve had a high degree of success. (More)