They've got I.T. Goin' On
Joseph Sanger, M.D., Director, RadIT
Image analysis and interpretation, and the generation of diagnostic reports, are all done through the PACS. If you look around the department and spot a film or view box, you are looking at a piece of our department’s history, for in any state-ofthe- art radiology department, digital imaging is the key. NYU has chosen the Siemens PACS as its digital imaging system. The PACS, which is also employed by other departments in the medical center on a growing basis, is perhaps the central axis of the Radiology Department’s day-to-day work. It serves as the digital storage system for all imaging modalities, and is integral to the timely creation of diagnostic reports. Dr. Sanger recognizes that the PACS will continue to grow in importance over the coming years as more institutions across the country get on board. The benefits of digital image storage and distribution will facilitate the clinical mission of not only radiology departments, but those of other specialties as well, such as cardiology, dermatology, pathology, and surgery.
Image analysis and interpretation, and the generation of diagnostic reports, are all done through the PACS. If you look around the department and spot a film or view box, you are looking at a piece of our department’s history, for in any state-ofthe- art radiology department, digital imaging is the key. NYU has chosen the Siemens PACS as its digital imaging system. The PACS, which is also employed by other departments in the medical center on a growing basis, is perhaps the central axis of the Radiology Department’s day-to-day work. It serves as the digital storage system for all imaging modalities, and is integral to the timely creation of diagnostic reports. Dr. Sanger recognizes that the PACS will continue to grow in importance over the coming years as more institutions across the country get on board. The benefits of digital image storage and distribution will facilitate the clinical mission of not only radiology departments, but those of other specialties as well, such as cardiology, dermatology, pathology, and surgery.
The “Renaissance Man” of RadIT, Robert Moy is the PACS Administrator for the entire Radiology Department. Working arm in arm with Chris Petillo, the Director of PACS for the medical center, Mr. Moy has the challenging job of ensuring that the system runs smoothly and that studies and images reach the appropriate radiologists. He is also extremely adept at troubleshooting problems or glitches that arise in the imaging systems — acknowledging that they can never be solved fast enough to please harried radiologists.
Radiology departments are learning that in order to maximize efficiency and exam throughput, the classical transcription model is no longer tenable. An electronic speech recognition system allows radiologists to dictate findings directly into a computer system, eliminating the need for manual transcribing and reporting. This transforms a process that used to take several days into one that requires only minutes. While the radiologists must still take the time to ensure typographical accuracy, this system improves turnaround time enormously, providing huge gains in efficiency. RadIT performs the important function of maintaining and overseeing these systems to minimize glitches and ensure accuracy. The department has been using Talk Technology speech recognition software, but is in the process of migrating to a newer platform recently introduced to our department, Commissure. This vastly improved speech recognition tool is being custom-designed for the department through a very close collaboration between RadIT and the product vendor.
OTHER CORE SERVICES
Another system that has been implemented by RadIT for the Department’s Faculty Practice Radiology and for the Billing Office is the document imaging system ImageNow. It gives radiologists, schedulers, billing staff, and others instantaneous electronic access to documents relating to patient billing and clinical data. Referring physicians have the ability to fax prescriptions and other documents directly into the ImageNow server. Various documents can be entered via scanners that are located at key areas in the Faculty Practice Radiology offices. ImageNow also stores a variety of documents that are used primarily by the billing staff.
On top of managing the most critical systems of the Radiology Department’s clinical service, the systems analysts of RadIT spend much of their time providing desktop support and maintenance for the many hundreds of computers and laptops in the department. RadIT provides coverage 24 hours a day, seven days week, offering troubleshooting services and preventive maintenance to ensure proper functioning of all hardware and software. Another major responsibility of the group is the installation, configuration, and active maintenance of a server farm that currently consists of about 40 discrete servers that provide the actual Central Processing Unit (CPU) horsepower used throughout the department. In addition, the group manages the 30–40 interfaces that constantly exchange data between the different computer systems around the institution. If a piece of data gets stuck while moving from one system to another, RadIT quickly works to solve the problem. This may require special expertise or working with an external vendor, and at any given moment someone in RadIT is watching for such a problem and is ready to fix it — the I.T. equivalent of intussception reduction, perhaps.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL…RISING ABOVE THE COMPETITION – SPECIAL PROJECTS AND PROPRIETARY APPLICATIONS
What perhaps most distinguishes NYU RadIT from its counterparts at other medical centers is the effort it puts into “special projects” — the unique applications and tools designed by RadIT on a continual basis to help improve workflow, efficiency, and ultimately, patient care. Joined by Senior Systems Analyst Ricki Stern, Dr. Sanger and Mr. Kirpekar work in tandem on such projects. There are about thirty special projects currently up and running, with a half dozen or so in the development pipeline. In general, the work done on special projects follows this rough template: the opportunity for workflow enhancement is identified by either Mr. Kirpekar or Dr. Sanger; joined by Ms. Stern, the three meet to design the application; and Dr. Sanger and Ms. Stern finally write the web application which satisfies the particular need or problem. Much of the data used in these web applications comes from the Radiology Data Repository (RDR), an Oracle database that Mr. Kirpekar loads hourly from the RIS. As Mr. Kirpekar describes it, this Oracle database allows Dr. Sanger to do “wonderful things with it,” namely coding web-based applications to improve departmental communication, workflow, clinical care, education, and research.
Perhaps the most far-reaching and comprehensive proprietary application designed by RadIT is the Radiology Informatics Web Portal, better known as “RadClinInfo.” This portal was initiated by Dr. Sanger over eight years ago and has been under constant development ever since. Largely based on concepts and needs identified by various individuals such as Robert Grossman, M.D., Department Chairman, Bernard Birnbaum, M.D., Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs and Operations, and Andrew Litt, M.D., Vice Chair of Financial Affairs, RadClinInfo improves a number of critical departmental functions related to workflow, communication, clinical care, education, research, and quality assurance. There are currently twenty separate mini-applications, or “portlets,” contained within the portal, and more are added every few months.
<< Previous Page
>> Next Page
Page:
1
2
3
4
5