SIIM offers opportunity for imaging information champions
One of the key pieces of successful imaging IT projects is the need for clinician champions who are willing to learn the skills needed to be the interface between clinical and health IT teams. While technologists and physicians are trained and well versed on clinical matters, they are often not trained in health IT. The Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) said it can offer resources for these clinical IT leaders and health systems.
"SIIM is a society of informatics champions, it's where those people live. SIIM has partnered with RSNA to build the National Imaging Informatics Course so that there's a common way to start the beginning of that training around informatics so people can grow to be the champion," explained Alex Towbin, MD, FAAP, FACR, FSIIM, SIIM chair-elect, a radiologist and associate chief medical information officer at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, in the above video interview with Radiology Business.
He said education and peer connections through the organization offer deeper dives and higher skill sets to provide the knowledge needed to implement major IT system upgrade projects. It also enables clinicians and IT teams to understand each other when it comes to discussing interfaces like HL7, FHIR, DICOM, or other components that make up cloud or enterprise imaging IT systems.
"It's really good for people who are trying to springboard into imaging informatics. I get a lot of radiology technologists approaching me asking, 'How do I get into this field?' And I always direct them to SIIM's education training," explained Sylvia Devlin, MS, RT, CIIP, FSIIM, SIIM treasurer and director of customer success imaging informatics for Radiology Partners.
She said SIIM will soon offer a virtual hospital environment that creates a sandbox for people to practice going through IT use cases without touching real patients' data. This can help them get more comfortable before an actual IT implementation. She said the group also offers a lot of mentorship opportunities.
Dave Fornell has covered healthcare for more than 17 years, with a focus in cardiology and radiology. Fornell is a 5-time winner of a Jesse H. Neal Award, the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of specialized journalism. The wins included best technical content, best use of social media and best COVID-19 coverage. Fornell was also a three-time Neal finalist for best range of work by a single author. He produces more than 100 editorial videos each year, most of them interviews with key opinion leaders in medicine. He also writes technical articles, covers key trends, conducts video hospital site visits, and is very involved with social media. E-mail: [email protected]