eHealth Connect Image Exchange connects your PACS with your Health Information Exchange (HIEs) providing access to the medical images they need from all locations with a single click.
- Image Exchange allows users to share imaging studies for immediate, community-wide access
- Transfer-to-PACS allows authorized HIE users to select from one or more external imaging exams to be transferred into their own PACS
- Emergent Workflow allows imaging providers to initiate real-time, potentially life-saving imaging consultations with specialists anywhere in the world
- Automated Imaging Workflow provides fully automated delivery of relevant external medical images, without even the push of a button.
eHealth Connect Image Exchange
eHealth Connect Image Exchange allows users to share imaging studies for immediate, community-wide access by referring clinicians and other specialists through the Health Information Exchange (HIE) or their EMR. Providers can view patients’ external images or transfer them into the PACS with a single click.
Image Exchange Workflow Capabilities
eHealth Connect® Image Exchange has been designed to integrate with all common PACS technologies and with virtually all HIE and EHR platforms, providing the following image-enabled clinical workflows:
- View all imaging studies from within the patient record on an HIE portal: With a single click, authorized HIE users can launch a study of interest from any connected imaging location on eHealthViewer ZF—a zero-footprint, web-based viewing platform—a fully diagnostic-quality FDA 510(k) Class II medical device.
- View and compare imaging studies from different locations: Authorized HIE users can access a Community-Wide Imaging Worklist for their patients. Users can manipulate, sort, and view one or multiple imaging studies from different imaging provider locations in a common eHealthViewer ZF image viewing session.
- Collaborate with other health care providers anywhere in the community in real time: With a single click from the eHealthViewer ZF, users can initiate an immediate screen sharing consultation session with any other authorized care provider in the community—for wet reads, second opinions, and consultations between referring physicians and specialists.
- Access images from external locations directly from their EMR or Direct Messaging inbox: Care providers seeking access to patient records from their Direct Messaging inboxes, or as delivered to directly to their EMRs can be provided “one-click” access to view imaging studies on eHealthViewer ZF. This capability has the added benefit of enabling participating institutions to meet a key imaging menu criterion of Meaningful Use Stage 2.
Benefits to Payers, Providers, and Patients
- Simplifying access to medical imaging studies originating from any PACS source or vendor by providing eHealthViewer® ZF as a unified viewing environment for all medical imaging studies in the community.
- Helping connected hospitals and imaging services providers to secure and grow their referral base by providing a more complete service to their referring clinicians, with “one-click” access to view diagnostic quality medical imaging studies in conjunction with results reports from their system of choice: their own EMR, their Direct Secure Message inbox, or the HIE portal.
- Enabling “Eligible Professional” care providers to meet Meaningful Use Stage 2 because access to external imaging studies can be delivered directly into their own EMRs, satisfying an important MU2 menu objective.
- Expanding an HIE’s user base and increasing overall HIE usage by enhancing the value of services available to their participating health care providers, with the incorporation of access to medical images.
- Improving efficiencies and reducing operational costs for connected hospitals and imaging services providers by supplying them with a unified platform for sharing images with any care provider who needs access. This includes sharing images externally with referring physicians and specialists who need access for follow-on care, as well as gaining internal access to relevant prior imaging studies from other locations across the community for patients who are being provided care within their facility.
- Enhancing the speed and quality of care with additional services such as immediate real-time imaging consultations, side-by-side comparisons for images from multiple locations, and emergency and urgent image access needs.
Transfer-to-PACS
Radiologists and other clinicians frequently have access to relevant external prior imaging studies on their local PACS in order to properly diagnose and treat more complex medical conditions. Delivery of these images directly into the PACS saves time and streamlines workflows for providers.
Accurate Image Transfer
Transfer-to-PACS augments eHealth Connect Image Exchange by allowing authorized HIE users to select from one or more external imaging exams to be transferred into their own PACS.
- eHealth Connect® Image Exchange accomplishes this transfer with a few clicks directly from an HIE user interface.
- The system will automatically ensure the correct local patient MRN has been inserted into its corresponding DICOM field so when it is imported it will appear as part of the local patient record on their PACS.
- Accession numbers can also be edited as needed prior to a transfer being initiated. This transfer does not rely on physical media and is accomplished entirely from the HIE user interface.
Experience the Benefits of Connection
- Cost savings: Replace costly, manual production, transportation, and importing of imaging physical media, such as films and CDs with just a few clicks from your HIE. Better data collection allows for more complete and successful billing, as well as facilitation of the authorization process. Pay only for the storage of the images you actually need to maintain locally, as all other studies will continue to be accessible on the HIE
- Save staff time: Decrease time spent calling, locating, and requesting external imaging studies.
- Efficient workflows: Radiologists and cardiologists can now access external imaging studies from within their own PACS. This allows them to review, diagnose, and report from within their everyday working environment, utilizing their familiar, pre-established tools and workflows. HIE users will benefit by no longer being required to download multiple viewers; nor will they need to review imaging studies from CDs, a slow and often unreliable method of working.
- Patient friendly: Eliminate the burden on patients of tracking down their prior images and transporting them to their next point-of care. Offer the highest standard of care with a complete medical record without delay for you or the patient.
Emergent Workflow
Imaging providers can initiate real-time, potentially life-saving imaging consultations with specialists anywhere in the world; in situations when a quick second opinion is needed, a specialist is not available, or in preparation for transferring a critical emergency patient to an advanced care facility.
Increased Speed and Efficiency
- Emergent Workflow can be added to the robust eHealth Connect Image Exchange service. This empowers HIE users to share images on a stat basis with other caregivers within minutes of the exam being performed, even before reading and results reporting have occurred.
- This is a particularly useful capability for remote clinics, small hospitals, or even after hours situations when clinical staff are not on-site to diagnose and treat emergency cases.
- Utilizing Emergent Workflow can help to quickly identify the appropriate treatment for stroke victims in the crucial few minutes, as well as diagnose and treat trauma patients when local expertise is unavailable — all more effectively and efficiently than traditional approaches.
When Minutes Count
- Collaborate immediately: Care providers in smaller, remote facilities no longer have to face difficult challenges in making medical images available to caregivers at advanced care facilities. Emergency patients can now have their images viewed by the most qualified radiologist, anywhere in the HIE’s region. This assures the most appropriate treatments are administered during those most crucial minutes.
- More efficient patient transfers: Patient transfers are often delayed while an imaging CD is produced and sent with the patient on an ambulance or life flight. Upon arrival at the advanced care location further delays invariably occur while staff members struggle to load, view, and interpret images from a previously unknown CD before care planning can proceed.
- Faster consults: Newly scanned imaging exams are viewable within minutes as part of the patient’s virtual health record anywhere in the region served by the HIE. This enables immediate consultations and care planning to occur, often times while the patient is still in transit, speeding care by minutes or even hours. When the patient arrives, crucial minutes can be spent implementing the care plan instead of further diagnosing the patient’s condition.
Automated Imaging Workflow
Automated Imaging Workflow provides fully automated delivery of relevant external medical images, without even the push of a button.
Automated Imaging Workflow Capabilities
- eHealth Technologies’ Automated Imaging Workflow is an innovative, groundbreaking technology that makes access to prior medical images immediately available into a local PACS or imaging system.
- This efficient, comprehensive and accurate service eliminates all manual steps and delivery can be initiated when a patient is scheduled or presents in an emergency situation.
- Through Automated Imaging Workflow, all external, relevant images from connected facilities in the HIE are available to clinicians, radiologists, and specialists prior to a patient’s appointment and without the need for staff to spend time to locate and gather them.
Benefits for Imaging Providers and Patients
- Immediate access to relevant, external imaging studies—automatically delivered into a local PACS or imaging system with no manual steps
- Eliminate the burden on staff to spend hours a day locating, gathering and importing medical images
- More complete, comprehensive records are available for every patient—avoid delays and gaps in care from missing images and repeated test
- Reliable delivery of patient records before they are needed—prior to an appointment or at the point of care
- Trusted accuracy of fully reconciled records, based on key patient identifiers
- Patient and staff satisfaction is increased as clinicians and providers have more time for patient care
