The consolidatory effect of an enterprise imaging strategy can be important, both from a financial and care-outcome perspective.
For example, bringing together imaging from radiology, surgery and pathology into a common platform, interfaced with the EMR and dedicated oncology IT, is showing clear benefits for care outcomes; these are commonly known as multidisciplinary “Tumour Boards”. Integration of unstructured data from dermatology (visible light images) or point of care ultrasound (POCUS) also supports healthcare providers in filling in gaps of patient medical records (often these scans or images are not scheduled, or archived centrally); this offers both clinical benefit, as well as financial gain in terms of missed billing opportunities.
However, there are still relatively few case studies of mature enterprise imaging at scale in the market, though the list is growing. Multi ‘ology mature enterprise imaging is a long-term and complex strategy to implement; consequently, few healthcare providers have “completed” it, with most still in the early foundational stages.
With a relatively small body of evidence as to its effectiveness, this makes it harder for health leadership to take the concept of enterprise imaging seriously against the backdrop of EMR expansion and growing leverage in decision-making.
EMR and mature enterprise imaging can coexist Perhaps most importantly, there may need to be a change in thinking at the executive level of healthcare providers.
In the case of radiology specifically, market evidence suggests that EMRs have some way to go if they are to fully replace stand-alone radiology IT. Instead, health providers should be looking for where the scale and breadth of the EMR can be augmented by the depth and specialism of radiology IT and vice versa.
For example, enriching core radiology software and the user interface with curated longitudinal patient data from the EMR is viewed as a positive way to improve the quality of diagnosis. At the same time, implementing advanced image archiving and clinical data management, usually an outcome of mature VNA implementation most commonly driven by radiology, can lay the foundation for management of imaging and other data outside the EMR.
Perhaps most potential for improvement in care coordination and broader diagnostic data management lies not in replacement of the radiology IT, but in supporting its evolution to enterprise imaging. Putting this in place for many health providers is clearly a daunting task; however, solutions to support interplay between systems are increasingly available and are becoming part of imaging IT vendor portfolios.
