How to Electronically Share Medical Information

In an age of digital everything, the ability to share patient information and medical imaging results electronically is becoming imperative. Not only does this allow for more efficient medical care but can streamline your workflow and save you both time and money.

However the integration of your PACS/RIS with your Radiology Groups PACS, customers EMR or Billing system may be challenging both for your pocket book and your software capabilities. So when a customer ask you if you can receive orders from them electronically or send them back reports, where do you begin?

Fist you want to take a look at your existing PACS/RIS setup and determine how you are able to receive or pass along this information. Can you setup an HL7 connection, drop a file in a a shared folder, or convert the information to a text file? Are you even receiving the reports back electronically from your Radiologist? If not, is this a possibility?

Next you need to investigate your client's EMR and its capabilities. Are they able to pass information electronically? Will there be a costly upgrade to their existing software to handle and HL7 connection? If so, are there other options besides HL7? Although the need might be there to pass the information back and forth electronically, the software they are using might only be capable of sending and receiving information in a certain format and that format might not be compatible with your system.

So now what? Do you have a PACS/RIS vendor willing to assist you in connecting your system with your clients? Are they reasonably priced or do they want a high fee for every connection? If you have discussed this type of integration with them and found that the price is out of your range you may want to consider another resource that can help you effectively setup this type of interface. A data broker, like the MDI Atlas, can take the information from one system in just about any format and transfer it to another medical information system in the same or different file format. The MDI Atlas will transmit the data in the format that each system can send or receive in, all while being cost effective.

If you have a client asking for an integration with their EMR or have switched Radiology Groups and would like to receive reports back electronically, give us a call. We have the knowledge and experience with electronic transferring of medical data and would be happy to lend you a hand in determining what your need are. We offer a free analysis of your situation so you can determine whether integration is even possible.