From the October 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Next Generation IT Solutions
What do we expect from this next generation of IT solutions? Imaging 2.0 saw incredible advances in technology, including the development of RIS and PACS that helped radiologists meet the exploding demand for imaging. Now, vendors are challenged with evolving these systems further to meet the demands of Imaging 3.0. In doing so, they must pay particular attention to developing imaging life- cycle and care-continuum solutions that emphasize evidence-based decision making, actionable results, integration with non-radiology systems (most notably the EMR), demonstrated accountability through metrics, and active communication and information sharing between radiologists and both referring physicians and patients.
By way of example, we can examine several stages of the imaging life cycle, beginning with the ordering process. Concerns about imaging over-utilization, defensive medicine, and radiation exposure contribute to the need to better manage the ordering process. Since ordering the right test at the right time is essential to improving patient care and decreasing long-run costs, we must look for solutions that optimize this process. At the ACR, we are working with vendors to implement a solution known as ACR Select — a clinical decision support system that uses the ACR Appropriateness Criteria, established evidence-based imaging guidelines, to rank the appropriateness of tests based on given clinical scenarios.
The goal of decision support at the time of order is to eliminate inappropriate imaging and initiate dialog between radiologists and referring physicians about imaging appropriateness. Distributed by National Decision Support Company (NDSC) on the ACR’s behalf, NDSC is integrating the ACR Select solution into EMRs and other point-of-care ordering applications to bring real-time evidence and radiologists’ expertise to a critical point within the care process. Not only does this process ensure evidence-based decision making, but it also aggregates data about the ordering process, which hospitals can use to better understand their ordering metrics and why variations may occur within and across facilities. Additionally, integration with the longitudinal health record has the potential to provide data that health systems can use to gain insights into the impact of diagnostic imaging on patient care.
The need for advanced Imaging 3.0 IT solutions extends beyond ordering to imaging interpretation and reporting. Radiologists need tools that will bring evidence-based information to bear in real time during the interpretive process. Industries ranging from finance to logistics are already benefiting from having access to real-time information. For radiology, natural language processing, advanced search strategies, and other tools will give radiologists access to the latest high-quality evidence when it’s needed most — during imaging interpretation.
