by
John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter | February 05, 2018
From the January/February 2018 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
“You need a system that’s able to adapt to those different environments,” says Laurie Lafleur, director of product marketing at Intelerad Medical Systems. “Maybe a hybrid solution to do some local caching or local processing to remove the burden from the network infrastructure.”
What should providers be asking themselves?
The first question that a provider or practice should ask is “What are my goals,” says Eitan Aschner, Carestream product line manager for Healthcare Information Solutions in the U.S. and Canada. “What are you actually trying to achieve in terms of this new system?”
The answer to that question will depend on a range of factors, including: future endeavors; size of the facility; cost of the solution; and who is involved in the decision. In an era where interoperability is king, the burden of imaging IT decision-making has been partially lifted from the radiology department’s shoulders and is shared among all department heads and hospital decision-makers.
“What they should ask is, ‘How can the system or solution I’m looking for benefit outside of our specific department?’ ” says Harold Welch, vice president of technical solutions worldwide at Novarad. “How can this benefit us as a whole?”
That conversation should be had with one eye on the future. Instead of figuring out what kind of technology will improve workflow efficiency and patient outcomes right now, planning ahead means leaving room for the integration of complementary tools and solutions, such as artificial intelligence, for example.
The Exa platform is comprised of a variety of modules including
a PACS, RIS, EHR and specialty viewers across a shared
database, each of which can be utilized alone or together to
create a complete enterprise imaging radiology environment
The size of an imaging facility, hospital or health system will also play a significant role in finding the right imaging IT solution to meet its needs. While a smaller facility might have the disadvantage of an extremely tight budget, limited size and comparative simplicity are advantages that make its needs easier to be met at a price point that won’t break the bank for such a facility.
Bigger facilities, conversely, tend to have more complex systems, particularly those with sites that are regionally diverse. Providers like this might see greater advantages in zero footprint solutions as a way to minimize troubleshooting at individual workstations – especially those that are acquiring other providers and practices, reflecting an ongoing trend of consolidation.
