The medical image exchange empowers the health information exchange to send and receive MRIs, CT scans, ultrasounds, mammograms, and x-rays.
CORHIO, a top health information exchange (HIE) in Colorado, has unveiled a partnership with a medical image exchange company to power the transfer of medical images between healthcare providers in the state.
Regardless of the health system or EHR system, the HIE can now facilitate images between its 19,000-plus users in Colorado.
Using this partnership, providers will be able to exchange MRIs, CT scans, ultrasounds, mammograms, and x-rays.
Want to publish your own articles on DistilINFO Publications?
Send us an email, we will get in touch with you.
The medical imaging company, Health Images, has sent radiology reports to CORHIO since 2016 for authorized users to access.
“This project marks an exciting milestone for CORHIO and we are thrilled to partner with Health Images to make these results available to the healthcare community in Colorado,” said Morgan Honea, CEO of CORHIO. “Health Images is the first organization to successfully provide links to diagnostic images in our HIE, which will greatly enhance the patient results available in the CORHIO network.”
Prior to this addition, providers were forced to log into a separate system or call other facilities to have the images sent via mail or fax machine.
With medical images now available on a secure web-based portal, providers can now save time by clicking on a link to access the images in the portal. This secure portal aims to improve communication among providers who are on a separate EHR systems, storing medical records for the same patients.
“We at Health Images take pride in providing quick, easy access to patient’s reports and images for doctors and staff,” said Shelley McLeod, vice president of operations at Health Images. “This leads to more efficient and effective treatment for patients. With CORHIO as an avenue that is widely used, we are excited to collaborate with them on this offering.”
Medical image exchange is an industry-wide issue.
Even with the recent technological advancements, it is common for patients to carry around their medical images on CDs and DVDs. However, a medical imaging exchange should be a priority for HIEs.
Issuing medical imaging on a CD or DVD introduces possibilities for various types of error. It can cause delays, inconveniences, and unwanted expenses, such as having to re-produce images if the patient misplaces the disk.
“From a technical standpoint, the information that’s embedded on the discs also needs to be fully interoperable. and without the standards being perfectly aligned, that is usually not the case,” Dave Cassel, executive director for Carequality, said in an interview with EHRIntelligence. “But sometimes there’s a little bit of wizardry that goes into getting the data imported from the disc as well.”
But a new effort from Carequality is looking to change that, supporting a system of digital image exchange and erasing the use of CDs or DVDs.
Carequality, along with the help from the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the Sequoia Project, launched the Imaging Data Exchange Implementation Guide Supplement in an effort to improve technical standards that support the exchange of medical images.
“We’re excited about expanding what Carequality is already doing in widespread, high-volume exchange that we support in the realm of typical clinical documents,” said Cassel. “More traditional medical records type of exchange. Adding the DICOM images into that is got to be pretty impactful for healthcare and it’s exciting to be part of that from the Carequality standpoint.”
The Imaging Data Exchange Implementation Guide Supplement stems from the Carequality Interoperability Framework. This framework gives network-based access to medical images to fix current efficiency, safety, and quality issues when exchanging medical images.
Source: EHR Intelligence