Maintaining flexible accessibility with PACS-EMR integration

Antonia Wells, Chief Research &
Development Officer

By some estimates over 90 percent of the data in medical science is attributed to imaging. Whatever the actual number may be, it was certainly a factor in IBM’s decision to acquire Merge Healthcare, announced in August. Merge Healthcare is a Chicago-based provider of enterprise imaging, interoperability and clinical systems aimed at advancing healthcare. It was recently recognized as a top vendor in the KLAS 2015 Midterm Performance Review: Software & Services report. It provides enterprise and cloud-based technologies for image intensive specialties that provide access to any image, anywhere, any time. Merge’s technology platforms are used at more than 7,500 U.S. healthcare sites, as well as most of the world’s leading clinical research institutes and pharmaceutical firms to manage a growing body of medical images. Merge also provides clinical trials software with end-to-end study support in a single platform and other intelligent health data and analytics solutions.  PARCA eNews spoke with Merge’s Antonia (Toni) Wells, Chief Research & Development Officer at Merge Healthcare, Mark Bronkalla, vice president of Solutions Management, and Jim Boritz, VP PACS Development about integrating PACS with EMRs and EHRs.  In the Q&A format below, T. stands for Antonia, M. is Mark and J. is Jim.

PARCA eNews returns to bi-monthly distribution

PARCA has been trialing the monthly distribution of our newsletter. The decision to move to a monthly distribution trial was triggered by survey results indicating a preference for monthly, and by the Board’s desire to improve the engagement with our members, and, in addition, the increase in quality worldly PACS related material. During the last month, the PARCA board has re-assessed our trial and our engagement policy and found that whilst the quality of our content has improved, you, the members have been less likely to review the newsletter. As such, the decision has been made to return to newsletters being produced every two months.

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News Roundup

Electronic health record product certifications terminated

PARCA eNews – Sept. 2, 2015 – The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today announced that two electronic health record (EHR) products, previously certified as products that may be used as part of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs, had their certifications terminated. 

NCQA launches new eMeasure Certification Program

PARCA eNews –  Sept. 22, 2015 – The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has launched an eMeasure Certification program to certify an organization’s software code that produces electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) results.

Final Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020 Released

PARCA ENews – Sept. 21, 2015 – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), in collaboration with over 35 federal partners, today released the updated Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015–2020 (Plan).

Working from home: a growing trend among UK radiologists

Photo from UKRC conference gallery

PARCA eNews – Sept. 16, 2015 – Working from home is growing trend and spurred a spirited debate at the recent 2015 U.K. Radiological Congress (UKRC).

Noting that flexibility of working from home is a major reason many radiologists sign up with teleradiology companies. The questions of supporting a home workstation, security and privacy, not to mention administrative concerns about work hours and intrusions of home and family obligations were passionately discussed in a plenary debate, as reported by Phillip Ward, AuntMinnieEurope.com.

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.