July 2, 2012
news
According to a new study, the use of an EMR for reviewing portal images dramatically improves compliance with timeliness and record keeping. The study, which appears in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology, found that portal images are used to verify the positioning of patients during daily radiation treatments to improve the accuracy of the radiation field placement, to reduce exposure to normal tissue and to deliver accurate dose to tumor volumes.
June 26, 2012 Joe Marion
blog
In February the CMS published the proposed rules for Stage 2 of the ARRA/Meaningful Use act. The proposed rules include the possible inclusion of imaging, specifically image sharing as a criterion. The comments period closed in May, and now it will now be up to the government to see if imaging survives as part of Stage 2. I have heard some rumblings that advocate the removal of imaging, as “the technology is not mature enough.” I, for one, cannot support this viewpoint.
June 3, 2012 Joe Marion
blog
Cardiology is much more complicated compared to radiology, as there are many more data types involved. In radiology, since images are the primary form of data, the Digital Imaging and Communications (DICOM) standard has been immensely successful in creating an interoperable environment. Unfortunately, in the case of cardiology, besides images, physicians interact with wave forms, pressure measurements and documentation as part of a procedure.
May 31, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
HealthInfoNet and some of Maine's largest healthcare organizations will begin piloting the nation's first statewide medical image archive to reduce the cost of storage and transport of electronic medical images and share these images through the health information exchange (HIE). HealthInfoNet has shared radiological reports for several years, says Todd Rogow, director of information technology at HealthInfoNet, but it was clearly a clinician-led effort to get images into the central archive.
May 18, 2012
news
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is launching a new Investing in Innovation (i2) Initiative developer contest aimed at improving interoperability among office-based ophthalmic imaging devices, measurement devices, and electronic health records (EHRs). The ONC’s i2 program is a way to promote the use of technology to find solutions that drive better outcomes, engage users in their health, and improve healthcare quality.
May 17, 2012
news
Imaging Systems vendor Agfa HealthCare (Toronto, Canada), has announced the opening of a new research and development (R&D) facility and global data center in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The facility will be a place where Afga says it will expand on current product offerings and build its digital pathology offering, which it says will continue to improve and transform the field of medical imaging and image-enable the electronic health record (EHR).
May 14, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
Michael Green, D.O., has been helping to lead his radiologist colleagues forward towards automation-facilitated efficiency enhancement. Ultimately, he and his fellow radiologists in the Liberty Division of the Alliance Radiology group in the Kansas City metro area found a cloud-based PACS solution to be the inevitable choice when it came to access-anywhere imaging informatics.
May 1, 2012 Joe Marion
blog
A framework can build consensus and avoid misunderstandings when implementing a VNA. The framework graphs organizational focus against functional purpose, in an attempt to differentiate the particular needs, and potential emphasis of various vendors. Organizationally, initiatives can be focused around the needs of a single service area such as radiology, and primarily driven by the clinical service area.
April 19, 2012 John DeGaspari
article
More hospitals are looking to the cloud as a viable way to store clinical, imaging, and financial data. Experts acknowledge its advantages, but caution it’s a step that requires careful planning and vetting of potential cloud vendors.
April 12, 2012 Charlene Marietti
blog
Until now, the only absolute diagnosis of Alzheimer’s was by autopsy. As Sperling describes, neural markers can identify the difference between normal aging and Alzheimer’s and PET Amyloid Imaging can detect beta-amyloid neuritic plaques, a distinctive pathological feature of Alzheimer’s patients, in the living brain.
March 31, 2012
blog
This past weekend was the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting held in Chicago March 24-27. This year was an exciting year as there were major product announcements, but disappointing in that cardiology still appears to lag in terms of integrated cardiovascular information systems that will be essential to addressing ARRA/MU and the changing healthcare environment!
March 19, 2012
blog
Several recent enterprise imaging engagements have encompassed Pathology as an opportunity for digital image management, and they have afforded me the opportunity to gain a better appreciation for the state of the Digital Pathology market. From this experience, I am reminded of the similar experience in the early days of Radiology when the transition was made from film to digital images. The question is how similar will Pathology be, and can we learn from Radiology’s experience?
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