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.

Appearances can be deceiving on chest CT performed for COVID in cancer patients

In a study of more than 250 COVID-positive patients with a history of any cancer, fewer than half the cohort had chest CT findings deemed typical for COVID-related pneumonia based on an RSNA classification guide. 

An example of an FDA cleared radiology AI algorithm to automatically take a cardiac CT scan and identify, contour and quantify soft plaque in the coronary arteries. The Cleerly software then generates an automated report with images, measurements and a risk assessment for the patient. This type of quantification is too time consuming and complex for human readers to bother with, but AI assisted reports like this may become a new normal over the next decade. Example from Cleerly Imaging at SCCT 2022.

Legal considerations for artificial intelligence in radiology and cardiology

There are now more than 520 FDA-cleared AI algorithms and the majority are for radiology and cardiology, raising the question of who is liable if the AI gets something wrong.

Brent Savoie, MD, JD, vice chair for radiology informatics, section chief of cardiovascular imaging, Vanderbilt University, explains who will get sued when there is a misdiagnosis due to artificial intelligence (AI).

VIDEO: Who gets sued when radiology AI fails?

Brent Savoie, MD, JD, vice chair for radiology informatics, section chief of cardiovascular imaging, Vanderbilt University, explains who will get sued when there is a misdiagnosis due to artificial intelligence (AI).

Example of a cardiovascular information system (CVIS) cath lab reporting module with a coronary tree model that will auto complete sections of the report based on how the cardiologist modifies the model. Image from the ScImage booth at ACC 2022. Photo by Dave Fornell

VIDEO: 4 key trends in cardiovascular information systems, according to Signify Reseach

Signify Research shares the latest big trends in cardiovascular IT systems, including the role of EMR cardiology modules vs. third-party CVIS, structured reporting, integration into enterprise imaging and inclusion of ambulatory surgical centers. 

Portable orthopedic tomosynthesis cleared for U.S. sales

The FDA has cleared U.K.-based Adaptix to market a 3D X-ray system that, according to the company, images hands, feet and elbows “at a fraction of the radiation dose and per-study cost of traditional CT.”

AI helps reading-room radiologists differentiate colon cancer from diverticulitis

The model augmented and significantly improved diagnostic performance for abdominal subspecialists as well as residents—a result researchers say has major clinical implications.

6 pointers on POCUS leadership in the ED (and potentially beyond)

Has point-of-care ultrasound outpaced hospitals’ capacity to incorporate the technology without anointing any particular specialty its proper guardian? The case could be made.

Comprehensive 1-stop screening proves ‘efficient and valuable’ for identifying early-stage cancers

A multidisciplinary center dedicated to early detection of cancer in ostensibly healthy individuals has demonstrated the soundness of its founding concept, cost-effectively catching cancers of many kinds before the onset of symptoms.

Around the web

The patient, who was being cared for in the ICU, was not accompanied or monitored by nursing staff during his exam, despite being sedated.

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.