Taking the plunge into independent consulting

Mohannad Hussain, Medical Imaging 

As the second in a series looking at leveraging PACS administrator skills and expertise into new career possibilities, PARCA eNews talked with Mohannad Hussain, who took his expertise in DICOM, HL7 and PACS at both AGFA and Philips to launch a consulting business on his own. Having started in software development and project management, he later became focused on medical imaging informatics and found that to be a career calling. He has worked on a number of award-winning products, bringing innovative solutions to solve problems in healthcare and beyond. One of his passions is integrating systems in healthcare such as EHR/EMR, RIS, PACS, VNA, Universal/Enterprise zero-footprint viewers, VR/Reporting, AI/ML algorithms, Business Intelligence and Analytics to simplify workflows, automate steps, drive quality improvement for healthcare providers. Mohannad has spoken at a number of conferences in North America and overseas on a range of topics related to software development and health/imaging informatics. He is an evangelist for standards such as FHIR, DICOMweb and IHE profiles. He is the project manager for the annual SIIM Hackathon. His other passions include knowledge sharing/training and contributing to open-source software. While he has been consulting for 14 years, it was only recently that he made the plunge to full-time independent consulting. He began his company Techie Maestro in 2008 and went full-time in 2021.

Volunteer for SIIM – Accepting Applications Until June 2

SIIM recruiting volunteers for a variety of opportunities

PARCA eNews – May 18, 20221 – Are you looking to enhance your career, learn more about medical imaging and informatics, or just want to connect with others in the medical imaging field, then the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) is looking for you. The organization is accepting applications for volunteers through June 2.

RSNA to return to McCormick Place for annual meeting Nov. 28, 2021

PARCA eNews – May 17, 2021 – Live annual meetings are back! The Radiological Society of North America announced today that it will hold its 107th Scientific Assembly and Annual meeting at McCormick Place in Chicago Nov. 28 to Dec. 2, 2021.

“We have heard from many of our regular attendees and exhibitors that they are excited and ready to get back to Chicago for the RSNA meeting, and we look forward to welcoming them,” said RSNA president Mary C. Mahoney, M.D in a press release. “We are planning a robust in-person scientific assembly and technical exhibition, along with a virtual meeting component to enhance attendees’ meeting experience.”

Healthcare information advocacy groups raise concerns around proposed HIPAA rules changes

Image credit – HHS.gov

PARCA eNews – May 13, 2021 – The department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued several proposed rule changes largely aimed at improving data sharing for care coordination, however, several patient information advocacy groups, including CHIME have voiced concerns about the changes pointing to conflicting regulations between federal and state regulations, according to a report in the HIPAA Journal.

The advocacy groups are calling for changes the would align HIPAA Privacy Rule with the 21st Center Cures Act, particularly around federally assisted substance use disorder (SUD) treatment programs so that the HHS changes would more closely match those of state health data privacy laws. The issue is that providers are facing so many regulations that confusion could ultimately result in new privacy and security risks.

Hardening Cybersecurity of your supply chain

PARCA eNews – May 5, 2021 – Strengthening ICT supply chains requires an ongoing, unified effort between government and industry, says the US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

In March 2020, SolarWinds unwittingly sent out software updates to its customers that contained hacked code that gave the hackers access to many SolarWinds customers’ network.

End of road for ONC Interoperability roadmap

PARCA eNews – May 4, 2021 – The Office of National Coordinator announced that it is sunsetting the Interoperability Roadmap ahead of schedule, due in part to successes in achieving the goal.

In a May 4, 2021 blog post on the HealthIT.gov website, Steven Posnack, Deputy National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at ONC announced that the Roadmap released in final form in 2015 will no longer guide policy development on information blocking, reducing provider burden, and nationwide electronic information exchange.

Study finds wide variation in embargo periods blocking patient access to imaging

PARCA eNews – May 4, 2021 – In a US News & World Report telephone survey of 83 hospitals conducted between 2019 and 2020, over 90% of hospitals offer online patient portal to access medical imaging, however the amount of delay or the embargo period for access varied greatly.

The purpose of such embargoes is to allow clinicians an opportunity to first receive, review and discuss with the radiologist, however, there is no standardized length for such embargo periods. The survey results were published May 4, 2021 in the journal Radiology.