All health systems use picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) for the handling of medical images, but as imaging technology and research advances, more are looking toward an enterprise-wide imaging strategy (often involving a vendor neutral archive) for longer-term storage and enhanced image accessibility.
Such an approach can improve efficiency, collaboration, and, ultimately, the quality of care—but is there a finish line in such a journey or must making progress along the path itself be the goal?
On a recent panel to discuss this topic, Paul Buttes, system VP of clinical applications at Baptist Health System of Kentucky and Indiana, said enterprise imaging is a direction, not a destination. “With all the development that’s occurring, I don’t know if we will ever get to an end point, but we’re still trying to make it easier for our clinicians to access the images so they can care for patients, and also for our docs who are interpreting these images,” he said. Recruiting enough radiologists to interpret the images is becoming more difficult, and offering remote positions is helping to fill that need. “Having those images readily available for those interpreting providers to help with the turnaround is another key element to this whole platform,” he added.
Monique Rasband, vice president of strategy and research, imaging informatics and oncology at KLAS, said more organizations are striving for enterprise consolidation of their PACS. But hospital acquisitions have made that even more complicated. VNAs have been useful, but more options are appearing. “Will we ever have a complete end state?” she asked. “It does not sound like it with all the development. I think we’re definitely in this for the long haul.”
Lyle McMillin, senior manager of product management at Hyland echoed his co-panelists. Absolute enterprise imaging should likely not be the goal, he said. However, organizations can get to a “level of completeness” in their enterprise imaging strategy that effectively manages the data and allows all desired tasks to be accomplished.
Demand for More Imaging Data is Increasing
Advancing medical imaging use cases means CIOs have more reason than ever to get as much of their imaging centralized as possible, says McMillian, who predicts the use of AI on those images will be a key driver.
“People are going to continue to bring more and more into their enterprise medical imaging strategy,” McMillin said. “And whatever form that strategy takes on from an infrastructure perspective is definitely open to debate, but they’ll start to bring more and more of those imaging specialties under control of that strategy, and I think that’s the direction most people are going to continue to head.”
There’s a push for data preservation like never before, McMillin said. Radiology reimbursement was a big focus for years. But now, researchers and physicians want access to all patient care images, including those usually relegated to storage on SD cards or USB drives. “Content is becoming more valuable over time,” he said. “We need to have a strategy for archiving these things and making them available to the rest of the organization.”
Different Starting Points, Different Paths
Ultimately, every health system will have a different starting point in their enterprise imaging journey. And thus, the paths will not look the same, nor will the strategies, the panelists agreed.
Rasband said she sees systems every day focused on consolidation, be it just around PACS or also leveraging a VNA. The cloud is also coming into play now. Organizations are considering hybrid approaches to storage, back-up plans and more. Healthcare leaders wish they had considered imaging consolidation earlier, which is highlighting the importance of governance for charting a path forward.
It’s important that physicians share their visions for the future with the IT department, and that those looking to buy IT solutions first find out what the organization already has, according to Rasband. “Sometimes physicians are going down the road not realizing there is an overall enterprise imaging strategy. They don’t need new solutions. They could connect right into the VNA that’s already there and available for them,” she said. This is both a challenge and an opportunity.
McMillian noted that, ultimately, making sure the images are useful takes more than getting them all in the same place.
“If I were an organization trying to deploy an enterprise imaging strategy, I would look at the capture side of things and the consistency of data across the organization,” McMillan said. “Even if you get all your content into one place, you may have acquired a bunch of organizations over the years. You may have different EHRs and dozens of PACS, with decades of different indexing schemas. Before any of that content can be useful, you have to start with indexing content consistently.”
To view the archive of this webinar — Analyzing the Key Options for Your Enterprise Imaging Journey (Sponsored by Hyland Healthcare) — please click here.
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