lifeIMAGE Launches Clinical Connector, Increasing Healthcare Interoperability to Benefit Patients, Hospitals and Radiologists

NEWTON, MA – lifeIMAGE announced today the release of Clinical Connector, powered by lifeIMAGE, a high-performance, scalable, and secure health care application. It connects patients to their care delivery ecosystem while simultaneously simplifying administrative burdens for caregivers. Clinical Connector was built from the ground up using U.S. and international standards to enable a growing and broad set of interoperability needs across clinical and non-clinical applications, including medical imaging platforms that can now share data seamlessly between clinicians and patients. In the interest of patient continuity, lifeIMAGE is making the Clinical Connector available to all clearinghouse users of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Image Share pilot program, which is coming to a successful completion on March 31, 2018.

“In the face of a complex health care system, where many incentives exist to block data sharing, greater interoperability clearly enables better patient outcomes,” said lifeIMAGE President and CEO, Matthew A. Michela. “By democratizing data with the Clinical Connector, physicians and patients can quickly access comprehensive medical information that provides a connected view of the patient’s care across multiple delivery sites enabling better treatment and medical decision-making. As part of our commitment to interoperability, lifeIMAGE built this innovative framework and its affiliated network based on non-proprietary industry standards so it is easy to use, provides broad access for clinicians and patients, and serves as a hub for other companies to expand their data exchange needs,” said Michela.

The Clinical Connector simplifies a provider workflow inside any electronic health record (EHR) or picture archiving and communication system (PACS), and can be scaled to support on-demand growth. In turn, it reduces technical costs for providing access to medical records to patients by hospital and physicians.

This initiative matures the healthcare industry beyond the groundbreaking work of the RSNA clearinghouse pilot program that was funded by the National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). lifeIMAGE was the operating partner for the RSNA Image Share pilot program, providing the original technical architecture upon which tens of thousands of patients, nearly 50 hospitals, and seven other technology companies facilitated image sharing. Having completed its pilot successfully, the RSNA Image Share pilot is coming to a conclusion on March 31, 2018.

“The RSNA Image Share pilot clearly demonstrated the clinical value of physicians and patients sharing medical images and related information. We appreciate the efforts of lifeIMAGE and all of the other stakeholders in the Image Share pilot and the RSNA Image Share Validation program, who came together to make it happen. We encourage the industry to continue to advance this important effort toward true interoperability and call out for others to join this group of vendors who have recognized that their services must represent the best interest of the patient,” said David S. Mendelson, MD, Principal Investigator of the RSNA Image Share, Professor of Radiology and Co-Chair of Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) International, an initiative by healthcare professionals and the industry to improve the way computer systems in healthcare share information.

lifeIMAGE recently completed IHE testing as part of its 2018 IHE North American Connectathon, the healthcare industry’s largest, most rigorous interoperability testing event that’s attended by hundreds of the industry’s top leaders to test standards. The Clinical Connector was part of the lifeIMAGE technology that successfully demonstrated end-to-end compliance and seamless technological integration across the entire care continuum.

With its validated interoperability standards, the Clinical Connector clearinghouse and its associated network is open to any healthcare organization that wishes to participate in the network, provided it can also meet both the industry’s publicly utilized interoperability standards and appropriate security and confidentiality provisions.

lifeIMAGE encourages other companies in the marketplace, including its competitors, to promote interoperability and the cause of data democratization to improve patient care. Participation allows industry stakeholders to immediately benefit from the technology advancements made by lifeIMAGE by utilization of the Clinical Connector.