“To healthcare CIOs, medical imaging is just something that should work,” says Shawn McKenzie, Ascendian’s President and CEO. “It’s not something the IT team wants to deal with because it’s complex and requires an array of specialized skill sets. This isn’t just about radiology or cardiology – imaging is about anything that produces a diagnostic object which means the amount of images being collected is staggering. Savvy healthcare CIOs know they’re going to be held accountable for managing this mountain of information, and many have begun to recognize the pain points – they’ve seen the writing on the proverbial hospital wall. This is real. Medical imaging is the next big summit that healthcare IT professionals will absolutely have to scale, and it’s not something they can afford to overlook any longer.”

Seven Reasons Healthcare CIOs Avoid Thinking about Medical Imaging


Imaging’s complexity is often misunderstood: Imaging is far more than pictures created by radiology or cardiology; there are a host of other image-producing service lines that significantly raise the bar in gathering, storing, securing, and providing efficient access to these images in both a patient-centric and physician-approved way.

Imaging has its own language: Even the most sophisticated healthcare IT organizations often find themselves lacking the right skill sets to develop and execute a pervasive imaging strategy. Turning to outside experts is not only prudent, but could save millions of dollars in the long run by avoiding costly mistakes.

Imaging requires a strategy: Imaging is not a one-time project. It is an enduring effort that will be part of the continuum of care on an everyday basis from here forward. If you haven’t started, you’re behind. You need a well-thought-out imaging strategy, and the one you implement must both optimize your patients’ electronic health records and enable your physicians’ workflow today and tomorrow.

Disparate storage must be minimized: Do you have a legacy picture archive and communication system (PACS)? A vendor-neutral archive (VNA)? What model best suits your organization – as well as those you share patient files with? While minimizing disparate storage systems will help solve interoperability issues internally, it is also crucial to consider how you will effectively, efficiently and safely move images between your organization and external agencies.

Imaging requires security: Doctors and patients alike are accustomed to using the technology they have in their hands. Patients are increasingly texting images to doctors via their smartphones, for example, widening the potential for security vulnerabilities as these communications grow. Nonetheless, medical images, acquired via any means, must be routed to the appropriate patient files and protected according to regulatory guidelines.

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