Medweb’s battle-tested PACS systems rely on PARCA certified engineers

Medweb CEO Peter
Killcommons, MD

There may be no more critical implementation of a PACS system than those deployed on the battlefield such as those used in the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars. Consequently, when Medweb dispatches engineers to the frontlines to install or support its field PACS systems they need to have the knowledge base to troubleshoot any problems on their own. For that reason Medweb’s CEO Dr. Pete Killcommons requires his engineers to be PARCA certified. To learn more about the critical role PARCA certification plays in this company’s success PARCA e-news spoke with Dr. Killcommons by phone. As a physician he understands the interdependence of medicine and IT in modern practice and founded Medweb 20 years ago to address the needs of soldiers and civilians in conflict and disaster zones using telemedicine. He remains the only CEO of a major telemedicine firm to personally travel throughout active conflict and disaster zones, gaining extensive firsthand knowledge of the transformative potential of telemedicine on the frontlines for soldiers and civilians alike. For his dedication, The American Telemedicine Association honored Dr. Killcommons with its Industry Council Award last May.

PACS News Roundup

Implementing Standardized Radiology Report

Cinncinnati, Jan. 2, 2014 – Are structure radiology reports the next standard goal to be developed and implemented? Dr. Alexander J. Towbin, MD, chair of Radiology Informatics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio, developed a standardized reporting system that is now used at his facility.

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ACR in 2014: 5 Hot Topics

Dec. 16, 2013 – DiagnosticImaging – Representatives from the ACR detailed at RSNA 2013 five hot topics of concern for radiologist in 2014. A concise look at the issues facing radiologists in the coming year.

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Is Your Radiology Practice Tech-Savvy Enough?

By Marcia Frellick

CHICAGO, Dec. 09, 2013 — DiagnosticImaging – If you have a RIS and a PACS, congratulate yourself, but not too much. So doesn’t everyone else? The real questions you should be asking, said Paul Nagy, PhD, director of quality in the department of radiology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, are how old are those systems and what could you be doing to take advantage of available developments in technology?

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Improving Patient Safety and Outcomes in Critical-Results Reporting

By Mark Hagland

Dec. 6, 2013 – Healthcare Informatics – At Mayo-Mankato, Ernest Beaupain has been helping to lead a broad initiative to improve critical test results reporting in the radiology area.

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Future looks bright for PACS and Systems Administrators

Janet Skinner, CEO

With all of the challenges to PACS and Systems Administrators posed by healthcare reform, PARCA eNews checked in the Janet Skinner, owner and CEO of Skinner and Associates Executive Search, Inc. to get a snapshot of the career prospects for PACS and Systems Administrators. Skinner and Associates specializes in nationwide recruiting for healthcare imaging, IT and informatics. For this interview, Skinner says she looked at recent job descriptions, and surveyed some recent recruits and her team of five recruiters to broaden her perspective.

Q. With healthcare reform and the other changes occurring in healthcare what do the prospects look like for PACS administrators and systems administrators over the next five to seven years?

PACS News Roundup

PET: A better tactic for imaging head trauma

OCT. 29, 2013 – MOLECULARIMAGING – With the emerging research on traumatic brain injury (TBI) related to professional sports, there is renewed interest in developing better imaging techniques for diagnosing and treating these injuries. A group of researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, Va., are using PET to trace neutrophils as they go on the defensive in response to trauma to the brain.

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ICD-10 readiness poses reimbursement risks for radiology

OCT. 25, 2013 – DIAGNOSTICIMAGING – Given the debacle of the Healthcare Exchanges roll-out this past month, many experts are concerned that an even bigger challenge may be looming around the corner. With less than a year remaining to implementation, there are many unanswered questions about the level of preparation among providers and payers that haven’t fully embraced what must be done to be ready for ICD-10. No one knows whether payers will be ready to process ICD-10 claims when the system goes live on Oct. 1, 2014. Most payers, including Medicare, haven’t completed a dry-run to ensure they’re able to meet ICD-10 requirements. 

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Ambient light rapidly degrades image quality on mobile devices

OCT. 18, 2013 – AUNT MINNIE – Radiologists should be particularly cautious regarding devices with high-reflectivity display characteristics that increase glare in all ambient lighting conditions, according to the group, who shared their findings in an article published online Oct. 10 in the Journal of Digital Imaging.

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Report Predicts Five-Year Balloon For VNA and PACS Markets 

OCT. 17, 2013 – DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING – Between 2013 and 2018, the report predicted a 5.2 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR). Enterprise PACS are expected to experience more significant growth, soaring to $510 million by 2018. Significant growth is also expected for VNAs – a rise from $165.3 million in 2013 to $335.4 million in 2018. 

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FDA Issues Final Guidelines for Mobile Medical Apps 

SEPT. 24, 2013 – DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING – Looking at the function of the apps rather than the platform, the FDA will focus on apps intended to be used “as an accessory to a regulated medical device,” such as accessing a PACS server on a tablet to make a specific diagnosis. They’ll also regulate apps that transform a mobile platform into a regulated medical device, such as an app that helps a device function as an electrocardiography (ECG) machine, helping to diagnose heart attacks or abnormal heart rhythms. 

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Pair of studies show missed mammograms increase risk of late-stage diagnosis

A pair of studies of mammography utilization show that women who missed mammograms tended to be diagnosed at a later stage. In a single institution study in the Nov. 2013 American Journal of Roentgenology researchers found that, regardless of age, women who underwent mammography were more likely to have early-stage breast cancer at diagnosis than were those who did not undergo mammography. In a failure analysis study of 7,301 breast cancer patients in the Sept. 9, 2013 Cancer, Harvard researchers found that among the 609 breast cancer deaths, 65 percent had never had a mammogram.

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Colby Dillion first to acquire PARCA's CHEA certification

Colby Dillion is a senior software engineer at PACSHealth, LLC, which develops software for monitoring PACS systems and radiation dose. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company develops software systems for medical imaging technology. Its PACSHealth and DoseMonitor applications use advanced monitoring and reporting tools to improve PACS work flow and throughput. Dillion is a 13-year veteran of healthcare IT, and recently became the first to become a Certified Healthcare Enterprise Architect (CHEA) from PARCA.

Colby Dillion, senior software
engineer for PACSHealth, LLC,
is the first to be CHEA certified

Q. What made you decide to pursue CHEA certification?

I view the entire lineup of PARCA exams to be oriented to those people responsible for system implementation and integration. CHEA has the much deserved title of "capstone" in this line of certifications.

Q. Do you feel that IT executives need to “up their game” in face of the changes occurring with PAC/RIS systems and integration with EHRs and other challenges coming with healthcare reform?

The changes coming with healthcare reform will force everyone to "up their game," especially those in executive positions. PARCA certifications build a solid foundation for the technical requirements coming with healthcare reform.

PACS News Roundup

Whatever else you say about Meaningful Use, it has been a powerful force driving more integration of healthcare information systems. The ultimate goal is to develop systems that deliver the complete patient record, including images to the right provider at the needed time. Having managed the evolving integration of PACS and RIS systems, PACs administrators are poised to play a key role with other healthcare IT professionals in the integration of these systems with electronic health records. The articles below touch on several key aspects of this next big challenge in healthcare IT.

SIIM 13: Panel dicusses the promise of HIEs in medical imaging

DIAGNOSTICIMAGING —June 6, 2013 – Only a tiny fraction of the health information exchanges in the U.S. today share medical images, but James Philbin, PhD, of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions says HIEs have the potential to transform health care. Philbin spoke as a member of a panel discussing the promise of HIEs at SIIM 13 in June. The experts discussed the obstacles for transmitting medical images across a health organization and new web-enabled technologies already available or being developed to overcome some of these obstacles.

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Why is giving patients control of their medical images a good practice?

HEALTHIMAGING – May 17, 2013 – The more complicated and cumbersome it is for providers to access patients’ imaging histories, the more likely it is for them to order duplicative exams and for patients to face delays in care and be exposed to excessive radiation. Enabling patients to receive and share results of imaging exams empowers patients to be truly engaged in and actively participate in decisions about their health. Having control of their medical images makes it more practical for patients to seek and receive vital advice on potential alternative therapies or options that best fit them.

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Mobile medical images challenge PACS administrators

The growing use of tablet devices and mobile phones by doctors for viewing medical images, pose a number of challenges for PACS administrators. Dr. David Hirschorn, is the director of radiology informatics at Staten Island University Hospital, N.Y. and a researcher in radiology informatics at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. He is also a member of the American College of Radiology IT and Informatics Committee, serving as a representative to FDA for mobile medical devices. He was a featured speaker at the Sept. 10 NY Medical Imaging Informatics symposium. PARCA E-News spoke to him, by cell phone (of course) to ask about these challenges.

Q. How did you become interested in medical imaging on mobile devices?
A. I’m a radiologist who researches  displays. For years I’ve looked at what we really need in order to read an x-ray or a CT scan. They make medical displays that are a lot more expensive than consumer displays.

PACS News Roundup

Meaningful Use stage two emphasizes encryption

A point of increased emphasis for the meaningful use (MU) Stage 2 final rule is encryption of “data at rest”—the patient-identifiable information stored on servers, hard drivers and portable devices. The increased emphasis most likely is due to the more than 50,000 breaches reported to the Office of Civil Rights since late 2009 when healthcare organizations were first required by the ARRA to notify the government of their breaches. More

iPad equals secondary-class LCD for reading emergency spinal MRIs

A study in the Aug. 2012 Academic Radiology researchers compared the iPad with secondary-class LCD monitors for reading emergency spinal MRIs. They concluded the displays had no statistically significant differences in diagnostic accuracy, showing that mobility doesn’t necessarily have to come at the cost of reader accuracy. More

Study shows how to handle massive increase in outside imaging study requests

Facing a 1,400 percent annual increase in requests for interpretation of outside imaging studies from 2010 to 2011, the Department of Radiology led by Dr. Stephen Reis at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., analyzed the workflow issues and identified six key problems for handling the requests. As reported by HealthImaging.com, the researchers shared the department’s workflow solution in August issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology. More

Multi-site hospital system slashes PACS downtime via workflow continuity model

In an analysis of a workflow continuity system implemented by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), a PACS team led by Brian Kolowitz found that downtime was reduced by 94 percent from 2008 to 2011. The impact of unplanned downtimes was reduced by 72 percent while the impact of planned downtimes was reduced by 99.7 percent over the same period. The study appears in the July 2012 Journal of Digital Imaging. More

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)