Defining Tele-Imaging with an Intelligent Universal Worklist
Brandon, FL – November 25, 2019 – PACS Harmony, an innovator of medical imaging workflow orchestration software, will showcase the latest release of its patented application suite in booth #4477 at the 105th Radiology Society of North America scientific assembly and annual meeting being held December 1-6 in Chicago’s McCormick Place (#RSNA19). A major enhancement to the software platform is a new tele-imaging module that enables imaging departments to select one or multiple exams to send to teleradiology service providers for diagnostic interpretation. Teleradiology is the practice of outsourcing imaging exam interpretations to radiologists at another location for various reasons, including off-peak coverage, load balancing and complex case consultations.
PACS Harmony’s new tele-imaging module is a one-click solution that forwards all order and exam information to the outsourced service provider, including clinical notes, diagnosis, reason for exam and other clinically relevant data stored in the organization’s EHR/EMR, Radiology Information System (RIS) and other clinical systems. The bidirectional solution tightly integrates with the organization’s EHR/EMR so that the outsourced interpretation results are automatically forwarded to the subject patient’s digital health record upon completion. Exams are then locked to prevent accidental double reads by internal interpreting providers, thereby avoiding medical errors and costly duplication of effort.
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with a busy clinical development partner on our new tele-imaging module. The radiology group includes more than 100 radiologists reading about 1.4 million imaging studies annually across 11 regional hospitals and diagnostic imaging centers,” according to Suzie Reas, PACS Harmony’s CSO and VP of Business Development. “Teleradiology plays a critical role in modern healthcare. Understaffed and overburdened urban centers as well as rural hospitals in remote areas rely on outsourced teleradiology service providers to deliver high-quality patient care. The PACS Harmony tele-imaging module addresses the unique customized workflow and load-balancing needs of these long-distance clinical collaborations.” For example, access to relevant prior studies, EHR/EMR-managed patient data, and insurance and credentialing criteria are all supported with the new module.
Innovative enhancements of the new module, expected to release in the first quarter of 2020, will deliver an end-to-end workflow orchestration solution, enabling healthcare organizations the ability to automate every aspect of an outsourced tele-imaging configuration and extend the platform’s powerful capabilities:
- Directing the transmission of current imaging exams, from imaging archives (PACS or VNA) to the teleradiology provider, immediately after image acquisition.
- The ability to preconfigure the number of relevant prior exams to automatically forward to the teleradiology provider along with the current study.
- The capability for administrators to automate exam distribution schedules for the teleradiology provider, incorporating predefined rules and load-balancing conditions, including overflow support.
“Since our start, PACS Harmony has been laser-focused on one goal: creating intelligent solutions for the workflow challenges that imaging professionals struggle with every day,” adds Dr. Michael Esposito, Founder and CEO of PACS Harmony. “Our new tele-imaging module is the latest chapter in our continuing story to help fellow radiologists in group practices, imaging centers and healthcare enterprises to practice in harmony.”
In addition to the new tele-imaging module, PACS Harmony’s universal worklist is the most intelligent and feature-rich imaging workflow orchestration application available today. The solution’s design, which features a zero footprint architecture that is easy and cost-effective to deploy, is headed by Dr. Esposito, a practicing radiologist in addition to being PACS Harmony’s founder. PACS Harmony currently offers the only independent and vendor-neutral universal worklist available that is untethered to a PACS company. The solution solves many of the remaining issues PACS have yet to tackle. PACS Harmony’s universal worklist can combine cases from any number of sources to be viewed on a single patient list. Not an outdated generic list, but an actively managed, equitable and intelligent patient list.
PACS Harmony is a privately held medical software company founded in 2008 by a team of radiologists, computer engineers, and IT professionals and was granted U.S. patent #9,727,935 in 2018 for workflow orchestration and equitable case distribution (load balancing). The PACS Harmony platform enables imaging providers to increase their productivity and efficiency. The enterprise-grade workflow orchestration solution works seamlessly with virtually any PACS, VNA or enterprise platform to intelligently deliver equitable and load-balanced exam distribution and unique customized workflows to small and large group practices and regional healthcare networks while enhancing the physician reading experience to maximize both patient satisfaction and provider profitability (www.PACSHarmony.com).
