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| Typical traffic pattern at the show. |
Imaging has long been an IT stepchild. Unfortunately, despite
the fact that managing healthcare imaging
is moving from a department
(radiology, cardiology etc.) level to an enterprise level, and becoming a CIO
responsibility, over the past few years, HIMSS has been doing very little to
prepare its members to do this effectively. As a case in point, of the 287
educational sessions at the recent annual meeting (HIMSS2016), only two dealt
with imaging, (not counting a vendor session on this topic), which is less than
1 percent.
After IT capital investments including EMR, and facility
improvement allocations, imaging is the third biggest hospital budget item
according to a recent survey. Who is managing this effectively to prevent yet
another department from purchasing a different image management solution? Who
is defining an enterprise wide imaging and information management strategy that
includes archiving, cross enterprise image exchange, life cycle management,
and, last but not least who is establishing a comprehensive set of rules for
security and privacy for these expensive acquisitions? I would guess the CIO,
but HIMSS better be prepared to provide these professionals with the right
skills and resources. Otherwise, how are images being effectively managed to
allow sharing and displaying in the EMR? It is not only the images from the
traditional sources such as the CT’s, MR’s, ultrasounds, scopes, and many other
medical devices, but in addition, the many images taken for wound care,
dermatology, and many other applications by physicians on their smart phones. There
is a big need for policies and appropriate encryption and EMR interface
management.
There is a disparity in the HIMSS approach as it
provides significant investment in the form of personnel for the Integrating
Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) and allocating a lot of resources for the annual interoperability
showcase at the annual meetings. For example, the IHE currently has 12 domains,
of which 50% deal with imaging: pathology, cardiology, dentistry, eye care,
oncology and radiology. Also, four of the ten showcases demonstrated at the
interoperability showcase included imaging. So, from an investment perspective,
HIMSS is doing the right thing, but maybe not at the right place.
There is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel as
there was an HIMSS-SIM workgroup report during the meeting and at the European
Society of Radiology (ESR) meeting there was an announcement of a
diagnostic imaging model by HIMSS analytics (see link).
However there is still a lot of work to do.
Hopefully, HIMSS 2017 will be a positive change for the
imaging world to provide CIO’s with the right education and tools to develop
the appropriate imaging strategy.
