Next-Generation Enterprise Imaging: A Holistic View Improves Decision-Making and Impacts Outcomes

Medical imaging technology is stepping up to help the healthcare industry meet the objectives of value-based care. The introduction of next-generation enterprise viewers is helping healthcare systems overcome their consolidation challenges to create an effective enterprise imaging strategy—one in which images are an asset.

In this post, we’ll examine the issues that care teams face and discuss how recent innovations are pushing enterprise imaging into the future.

The Move to a Single-Platform Viewer

When looking at current investment trends in imaging, we see most investments happening in radiology and cardiology consolidation. However, enterprise imaging currently encompasses many specialties beyond cardiology and radiology. All of them make use of stored images that are typically maintained in separate systems.

Having a single solution across the entire health system provides consistency to help reduce clinical variance and improve workflow. A single-platform viewer enables aggregation and sharing of images across all specialties, providing a single point of access to stored images. This optimized image delivery benefits patients and the entire health system.

Consolidating all imaging specialties to a single viewer can also help health systems achieve economies of scale. Implementing a single viewer eliminates the redundancy in archive systems and helps to reduce the burden on system IT teams.

A Window to the EHR

A complete enterprise imaging strategy allows everyone access to the patient’s comprehensive health record. An enterprise viewer serves as a window into the electronic health record, supporting the entire care team—including physicians, clinical specialists, surgeons, rehabilitation specialists, and nurses.

Of course, access to data is about more than just the ability to access image data from multiple data sources. The data also must be optimized to move through the clinical care team’s operational environment.

Because of its important role, it is critical that the enterprise viewer be designed specifically for the care team. User-friendly design provides primary care teams with easier and more secure access to a patient’s entire imaging profile. The viewer must account for such factors as how imaging data is likely to be used on tablets and other portable devices. If the design is not done properly, it can lead to care team frustration, which could adversely affect patient care.

Presenting a holistic view across diagnostics and other clinical imaging specialties helps clinicians treat patients with confidence and efficiency—improving care outcomes.

Next Steps for Next-Generation Imaging

So, what does this mean? First, a next-generation, single viewer is an example of how imaging can impact the transformation to value-based healthcare.

Second, the emerging trend today in next-generation enterprise viewers is a big focus on design for the primary care team and clinical specialists. Not all users will have the same level of technical imaging proficiency, but all will need to interact and consume results in a way that is efficient and effective for them.

Next-generation enterprise imaging systems enable high performance and flexible access for all imaging specialties; they provide actionable insights that help to improve care outcomes.

Learn more about the Change Healthcare Enterprise Viewer™, designed for the care team by the care team.