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The possibilities for both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics in healthcare are endless. Just like in our daily lives, AI and robotics are increasingly a part of our healthcare eco-system. It is now essential for automation in radiology and pathology, but it provides a means to support the human, not replace.  AI increases the ability for healthcare professionals to better understand the daily patterns and needs of the people they care for, and with that understanding they are able to provide stronger feedback, guidance and support for a proactive healthy lifestyle.

AI is getting extremely sophisticated at doing what humans do, but more efficiently, more quickly and at a lower cost.  It puts consumers in control of health and well-being and allows them to work faster when time is everything.

For years, organizations have used picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) as a way to store and call up images for reading. Integrating these images into the electronic health record (EHR) was an important step toward Meaningful Use in the 2010s.

That, of course, was before Covid-19 turned healthcare on its head, and strategic plans were thrown out the window. Virtual visits spiked dramatically and telecommuting became the norm — even for areas like radiology and pathology that many believed couldn’t be done remotely. At least, not as effectively.

The Three Essentials of PACS Integration through Enterprise Imaging.

The patient story is an ever-evolving and complicated driver in healthcare.

Patients move their care between hospitals and regions due to different service requirements, different illnesses or injuries, and the location of specialists and equipment.

As a result, patient data is constantly shifting and changing. It is forever in a state of flux and must be updated with the latest information. New medical images are acquired from various sources, whether it be computed tomography images, ultrasound scans, videos of surgeries, or photos of a wound taken on a cell phone in an emergency room.

This has implications for a patient’s electronic health record (EHR) and requires the integration of PACS spread throughout a healthcare enterprise.

Improved Patient Care

Patient care is paramount, and when enterprise imaging is adopted, quality of care can be elevated. It’s also important to note that today’s culture has shifted away from simply diagnosing and treating the sick. Today’s healthcare culture is primed for an emphasis on proactive and preventive care.

The current EHR and PACS require clinicians and providers to search through multiple systems to get acquainted with a patient’s medical history and profile. Crucial diagnoses could potentially be missed because the information was too buried or in too many disparate systems to be found and reconciled.

Common Challenge: Wasted staff hours due to workflow inefficiencies associated with importing images from DVD.

The scenario is common across healthcare delivery organizations when disparate PACS systems create an inability to easily exchange images. Instead, outdated systems require images to be imported from a DVD or other physical storage mechanism. Because this is cumbersome, a provider is often forced to order a repeat exam that is not medically necessary. This, in turn, creates delays in treatment while waiting for additional images. Physician and patient dissatisfaction results, as care is slow and cumbersome, and the cost of testing is unnecessarily increased.

Enterprise imaging plays an important role in facilitiating image sharing via telemedicine. We’ve answered some common questions about how this technology supports virtual visits and medical image sharing on behalf of patients and providers.

This vision includes patient access to medical information from the device and app of their choice. Providers can seamlessly share information between systems to have a fuller picture of a patient’s health history.

Governing this future is the 21^st Century Cares Act, which includes final interoperability rules from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).