Healthcare systems, hospitals and healthcare entities are more and more discovering their needs for an enterprise imaging (EI) strategy. As we are learning, imaging markets have been experiencing explosive growth due to advances in functional imaging technology and exploration of molecular imaging targets for diagnosis and therapy. 

As the power of information technology expands, the healthcare system has begun to shrink. Integrated IT systems are allowing providers to communicate across an enterprise like never before.

At ProMedica, a 13-hospital system serving northwestern Ohio and southeastern Michigan, the lineup of clinical departments soon to benefit from leadership’s decision to expand a long-installed radiology PACS into an enterprise VNA practically reads like a who’s who of the entire system. Cardiology, pathology and ophthalmology are on line or in line to be soon. So too are dermatology, wound care, maternal-fetal medicine, outpatient physician practices and more.

Despite its immense institutional know-how and its pure heft—11 hospitals, 5,000 medical staffers, $4 billion in net revenues—the Hospital Corporation of America’s multi-state, Denver-based Continental Division still found itself sending CDs and printouts via, among other low-tech image-sharing options, the chests of patients in ambulances and helicopters.

The transition from volume- to value-based care is underway in the U.S., but a tremendous amount of uncertainty—and anxiety—continues to plague the providers who deliver that care.

CIOs and Health IT Leaders Talk Integration, Interoperability and Images.

Medical imaging exchange within Orlando Health’s expansive system of six community hospitals, two specialty hospitals, a cancer center and nearly 3,000  physicians with privileges was turnkey; despite its best efforts, instantaneous image sharing with its 50 referring facilities continued to elude the organization.

Implementing an electronic safety net for communicating imaging findings can help these results get acknowledged in a timely manner, often within 24 hours, according to a study published online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.