Enterprise Imaging

Enterprise imaging brings together all imaging exams, patient data and reports from across a healthcare system into one location to aid efficiency and economy of scale for data storage. This enables immediate access to images and reports any clinical user of the electronic medical record (EMR) across a healthcare system, regardless of location. Enterprise imaging (EI) systems replace the former system of using a variety of disparate, siloed picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), radiology information systems (RIS), and a variety of separate, dedicated workstations and logins to view or post-process different imaging modalities. Often these siloed systems cannot interoperate and cannot easily be connected. Web-based EI systems are becoming the standard across most healthcare systems to incorporate not only radiology, but also cardiology (CVIS), pathology and dozens of other departments to centralize all patient data into one cloud-based data storage and data management system.

Radiologue: Whole-system Communications for Radiology

Sponsored by FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas

The San Francisco General Hospital/University of California–San Francisco Department of Radiology has created a groundbreaking communications tool called Radiologue. Alexander V. Rybkin, MD, a radiologist in that department, described the system in “A Web-based Flexible Communication System in Radiology,” which he presented in Minneapolis,

Have RIS/PACS, Will Travel

Sponsored by FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas

For over thirty years, Radiation Physics Inc (Beltsville, Maryland) has been providing mobile imaging services to the Baltimore and Washington, DC, metropolitan areas, serving long-term–care and assisted-living clients, as well as prisons and private residences. “We started doing this in 1976, and the business model has been pretty much the same

Tracking Patient Radiation Dose: IT Implications

In February, the FDA announced a new initiative to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure from CT, nuclear-medicine, and fluoroscopy exams. The agency’s three-pronged approach will include issuing safeguard requirements for device manufacturers, incorporating quality-assurance measures in mandatory CMS accreditation for imagers, and creating

Imaging-center Valuation 2010: Post-reform Drivers

While the industry landscape has certainly changed significantly since Radiology Business Journal published my article on this subject three years ago, the primary factors that drive the desire to complete transactions and the valuations remain largely intact.

MIPPA Accreditation: 20 Months to Go

As the deadline inches closer, radiology providers around the country are scrambling to meet new CMS accreditation requirements for MRI, CT, and nuclear medicine. By mandate of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA), in order to receive Medicare reimbursement for these modalities, imaging centers must be accredited by the

Leading an HCO in an Era of Scarce Resources: Implications for Radiology

It’s no surprise that so many provider organizations threw their weight behind the recently passed health-reform bill. In 2009, 72% of hospitals reported increases in uncompensated care.¹ The vast majority also reported decreases in both elective procedures and inpatient admissions, difficulty acquiring capital, and moratoria on capital projects

Improving Health Care: There Are Apps for That

Sponsored by FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas

If Dan Hesse had told you, 25 years ago, that you’d be reviewing studies, monitoring patients, and communicating with referrers using Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone, you would have thought him delirious. With today’s smart phones in play, the pitch from Sprint’s CEO did not sound like science fiction.

Academic PACS: It’s Not Elementary, Watson

Sponsored by FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas

In the late 1990s, Yale School of Medicine, New haven, Connecticut, implemented its first PACS. James Brink, MD, chair of the department of radiology and professor of diagnostic radiology, recalls how radiologists initially adapted to the brave new digital world: “It took some of the more senior radiologists a while to get used to using a cine

Around the web

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.

The all-in-one Omni Legend PET/CT scanner is now being manufactured in a new production facility in Waukesha, Wisconsin.