Imaging Clinical Information System Transfer Expands Medical Imaging Sharing, Collaboration Across Healthcare Information Exchanges

A new “single sign-on, single view” format on an imaging clinical information system (ICIS) enables clinicians to rapidly and easily see pertinent images from any workstation or device.

The support of non-Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) and DICOM data formats with this system facilitates storage and access of medical imaging information, multimedia information, and paper documents in one complete platform.

During HIMSS 2014, which will be held on February 23-27, 2014 in Orlando (FL, USA), Agfa HealthCare (Mortsel, Belgium) will present several enhancements to its enterprise ICIS, that utilize information technology (IT) applications to optimize collaboration among clinicians within a hospital and promote greater operational efficiencies and cost savings throughout an entire health system. As the “gold standard” for image-enabling the electronic health record (EHR), ICIS merges patient records by integrating and linking multifacility, multidepartmental, and multispecialty imaging data, providing the ability to capture, store, access and exchange images generated by a health system.

“Medical images, such as CT scans, X-rays, MRIs, and ultrasounds, as well as digital images of wounds, surgery, ophthalmology and dermatology, have become essential elements to the patient care continuum, often determining how a patient is treated and when additional intervention is required. Yet, in many hospitals and health systems, medical images are not accessible via a patient’s electronic health record and are often ‘siloed’ within the department in which they were generated,” said Michael Green, president, Agfa HealthCare Americas Region. “Agfa HealthCare is developing ICIS to meet this challenge head-on and to advance what we see as a rapidly advancing ‘visual healthcare evolution.’ By embracing cross-department and enterprise access to medical images, hospitals and health systems have the opportunity to enhance overall patient care, improve procedure and cost efficiencies, and advance meaningful use of the EHR.”

During HIMSS 2014, Agfa HealthCare will present its vision for furthering universal image and data sharing throughout the health enterprise. Among its initiatives at the event, Agfa HealthCare will be launching several enhancements to the ICIS platform, including ICIS Transfer, which further empowers image sharing across healthcare information exchanges (HIEs) and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), and the new single sign-on, single view format.

“Seamless access to medical images can have a significant impact in the care a patient receives and his or her ongoing treatment, while enabling hospitals to deliver optimal, efficient and cost-effective services,” stated James Jay, vice president, imaging IT Solutions, Agfa HealthCare. “As ICIS becomes the ‘gold standard’ for enterprise medical imaging, Agfa HealthCare is continually identifying opportunities to enhance the productivity of the platform by always keeping an eye towards the clinician and the hospital IT infrastructure. The enhancements we are unveiling at HIMSS 2014 were developed as part of this broader vision.”

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