Healthcare Imaging & IT - July 2008 - (Page 16)

Driving Metrics to Drive Business: Digital Dashboards Deliver DashboarD DeveloPMenTS: geTTIng PRoACTIve Digital dashboards peer into the raw data underneath the various, disparate systems in use at most organizations, pulling the information and presenting it on screen, explains Charles Morris, senior engineering specialist for Agfa HealthCare. That’s important, he says, because most clients have very diverse IT landscapes with scattered information. And now that RIS and PACS have developed to a certain level of functionality, “people are looking to further improve uptime of these solutions and further improve workflow by making better use of them,” says Rik Primo, director of marketing and strategic relationships for the imaging knowledge management business for Siemens Medical Solutions. Jennifer Beachel, product line manager for Carestream Health HCIS Business Management, agrees. “I think there’s a lot of pressure on system administrators to have virtually no downtime on equipment. That causes interruptions to workflow and costs hospitals money. They need to work toward as close to 100 percent uptime as possible.” The ability to be proactive is a key driver of the interest in digital dashboards. “We’ve really shifted the role from being reactive to proactive,” says Beachel. “With this information automatically populating an easy-to-interpret interface, users can stay ahead of any potential bottlenecks. That’s going to help minimize system downtime and negative impact to workflow.” Having data available on a daily basis, literally at the fingertips, lets users intervene before small problems become much larger. Waiting for quarterly reports, for example, [ Leslie Beidleman, regional PACS administrator for Mercy Health Partners in Toledo, Ohio, uses the Carestream Digital Dashboard to track Carestream PACS and imaging modalities at affiliated rural hospitals in addition to the main medical center. ] means “you’re working blind for three or four months,” says Primo. “You are presented with information that is months old and it’s too late to do anything about it.” MoRe BenefITS Being proactive also helps when it comes time to expand or upgrade and you have to choose new hardware including network connections. “You have to have a plan for that and you can only plan if you’re measuring,” says Primo. Another plus of the dashboard is the ability to simplify information for both radiologists and referring physicians. “A radiologist doesn’t have to be expert in RIS to read a RIS report or a specialist in how exactly to access the 3D programs because they will be defaulted in that portal,” Primo says. Referring physicians only want to perform a few tasks. Rather than being familiar with different PACS and RIS solutions at several different facilities, the information relevant to them can basically be served on a plate. Yaniv Dagan, president of Integrated Document Solutions, says the digital dashboard, or portal, provides a 1,000-foot view. In busy radiology practices, information often is trapped somewhere between the RIS and PACS, he says. A portal shows users accumulated information from the various systems, allowing them to act immediately. In an era when many groups or imaging centers are being acquired or are consolidating, there is a need to centralize information and a dashboard is a good way to achieve that goal. “Most of our dashboards are dynamic and show a lot of information to the right user at the right time,” Dagan says. Although radiology is more advanced than any other element of healthcare, Dagan says, “we still have a lot of fragmented pieces. We are definitely tuned more and more to making it all work in one piece. That’s the trend we see and what we are responding to.” 16 Health Imaging & IT | July 2008 HealthImaging.com http://HealthImaging.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Healthcare Imaging & IT - July 2008

Healthcare Imaging & IT - July 2008 On the Web The Enterprise News Update Convention Spotlight: AHRA 2008 Cover Story: Driving Metrics to Drive Business: Digital Dashboards Deliver Mammography CAD Comes of Age Breast MR CAD: Earlier Detection, Increased Efficiency Lung CAD Earning a Spot in Day-to-Day Practice Colon CAD: Breaking Down Barriers Modality Review: Cardiac CT Angiography: A Clear Pathway to Better Cardiac Patient Management Practice Management: RIS Rights Efficiency & Productivity Wrongs In Practice: Advanced Visualization Across the Enterprise Regulatory Update: Beware: Recovery Audit Contractors Poised for Permanent Status Technology Outlook: Compressing Images for Remote Transmission Reader's Resource Stat Sheet

Healthcare Imaging & IT - July 2008

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