CHICAGO - Medical informatics developer Sunquest Information Systems is debuting the latest iteration of its FlexiRad radiology information system to attendees at this year's RSNA. The Tucson, AZ-based business unit of clinical- and financial-management application vendor Misys Plc, is making a bold move toward PACS/RIS integration with this update.
According to company representatives, the next generation of the fully IHE-compliant RIS will be able to replace the DICOM modality worklist broker function in a PACS. Using a DICOM interface between a modality and the RIS, the application will be able to send worklists to the appropriate application entity on the network.
Once there, patient info can be modified or expanded by the technologist to include exam-specific information such as contrast type and rate, slice thickness, kVp used, and so on. When the exam is completed, the information and images are sent back to the FlexiRad RIS.
The RIS then automatically reconciles the data with previously stored information in its database. In effect, this fills in many of the DICOM Type 2 and 3 optional tags in the patient demographic record, such as referring physician name and phone number. The RIS can be set up by a site administrator to accept a medical record number or other site identifier for the patient.
The system also incorporates pre-fetching and auto-routing of images across the enterprise on a DICOM study level. Because it has access to ADT codes from a HIS, FlexiRad can associate the images taken on a "Jane Doe" in the emergency room with both the patient's true identity and new location in the facility after the patient is identified and moved to another unit.
The company has successfully integrated the Agfa-owned Talk Technologies' TalkStationRadiology speech-recognition system into the product. Bundling that application adds further clinical workflow and reporting capabilities to the RIS, said Ken Kark, marketing communications director for Sunquest.
FlexiRad has also incorporated digital signature tools into its WebView diagnostic report viewer, allowing physicians to review and approve radiology reports via a Web-browser style interface. The use of such electronic-security tools is part of the company's effort to incorporate Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant features into the product.
According to Scott Bagwell, Sunquest's senior vice president of world wide sales, these include configurable audit trails of any and all system activity, administrator-settable access policies to restrict user capabilities to relevant system areas, and digital security enhancements. The company expects to see its first installation of the integrated product in the fourth quarter of 2002.
By Jonathan S. Batchelor
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
November 28, 2001
For the rest of our coverage of the 2001 RSNA meeting, go to our RADCast@RSNA 2001.
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