DR Systems Announces Upcoming Release of Ambulatory Imaging-Centric EHR

Cloud-Based, Vendor-Neutral, Completely Certified EHR Designed Specifically for Medical Imaging Specialists' Meaningful Use Compliance

SAN DIEGO - DR Systems, one of the most respected names in healthcare information systems, announced today the company is developing an ambulatory imaging-centric EHR. The cloud-based, vendor-neutral EHR is planned to be available in the fourth quarter of 2011 and will be certified to facilitate meaningful use compliance for medical imaging specialists.

"Our new imaging-centric EHR is in keeping with our mission to enhance the clinical and financial success of our medical imaging customers," said Murray A. Reicher, M.D., F.A.C.R., Chairman of DR Systems, "It will be a vendor-neutral, cloud-based solution that can be used with any RIS, HIS, CVIS as a web-service plug-in, or standalone, so imaging specialists can obtain their incentive bonus and avoid future penalties. The intent is to help imaging specialists avoid the cost and inefficient workflow created by piecing together several certified modules. Instead, the DR System EHR will provide one system that can help specialists reach compliance within the context of medical imaging workflow, and one system that can wholly track compliance in real-time."

Integrating PACS with EHR

PACS = picture archiving and communications system (used in radiology)
EHR = electronic health record

So, it should be simple to integrate digital radiology images into an existing EHR, right? Well, it can be more complex than that because you have different PACS and EHR systems out there. The systems may not "talk to each other" very effectively.

One recent project demonstrates a successful link between Merge’s Fusion PACS with an EHR system from Epic. Where did this occur? Minneapolis-based HealthPartners and Merge Healthcare. Epic is widely used in many hospital systems. This Epic/Merge integration certainly won't be the last. However, I wonder which PACS solution will emerge as the leading option for hospitals running EHRs such as Epic.

Here are some interesting tidbits about PACS according to Wikipedia:

Most PACSs handle images from various medical imaging instruments, including ultrasound (US), magnetic resonance (MR), positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT), endoscopy (ENDO), mammograms (MG), digital radiography (DR), computed radiography (CR) etc.

In August of 2004, DR Systems was the first to announce that it had received FDA clearance for diagnostic reading of digital mammography images on a PACS. Since that time, other PACS vendors including CareStream Health, GE Healthcare, Cedara, FUJIFILM, Philips Healthcare, Sectra, Emageon, and Siemens Medical Solutions have also obtained FDA clearance for full field digital mammography (FFDM).

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is a standard for handling, storing, printing, and transmitting information in medical imaging. There are several Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) Viewers available both free and proprietary. Some of the DICOM Viewers include: Medstrat, eFilm, K-Pacs, DICOM Works, OsiriX, SureVistaVision , UniPACS, Syngo Imaging, VRRender, ImageJ and MicroDicom. Various viewers can connect directly to a PACS server or retrieve images from local storage. Of note, OsiriX is an open-source DICOM viewer.

So, did you catch all those acronyms? Welcome to the world of Health IT!