The imaging integration project was launched
in November 2008 at Saint Barnabas and Newark Beth Israel
Medical Centers with a technology fair that stirred excitement
throughout the department. Philips Healthcare set up a simulated “virtual” environment
and gave live demonstrations on the new standardized system
for cath and echo imaging.
Physicians and staff had an opportunity to test the new software
and experience the enhanced effectiveness of a single-platform
imaging system. Establishing an integrated, standardized
network with access to images from anywhere in the hospital
system will allow physicians to make decisions more quickly
and with greater confidence. Similar virtual demonstrations
will be scheduled at CMMC, CMC, KMC and MMC.
Integrating all six hospitals requires extensive collaboration
among physicians and staff. Committees are already in place
and preparations for the installation of equipment are on
schedule. The Steering Committee will oversee the entire
project, ensuring that timelines are met. The Information
Services Technology Team will ensure that communication between
the facilities, as well as the proper environment for servers
and software, is well established.
Especially important to physicians is the impact that this
advanced technology will have as the workflow is moved from
old systems or videotape to new seamless integrated systems.
An Echocardiography Workflow Team has established a standard
workflow regarding how orders are to be received and processed,
as well as how studies are taken and prepared for the physician
to read. A similar committee will provide the same level
of workflow analysis and streamlining for the cath lab.
The development of standard report templates
is critical to a unified
echocardiography system. The Non-Invasive Medical Directors
Committee has provided feedback and the Physician Advisory
Committee, comprised of physicians from each facility, is
working to provide oversight as well as insight about how
the software and the integrated system can help support physicians
in the most effective and efficient practice of medicine.
Report templates will incorporate measurement standards and
norms from the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE).
One of the significant advantages for physicians and patients
alike will be the immediate access to multiple studies at
one workstation. The Xcelera system maintains digital images
from any type of study obtained within our cardiac catheterization
labs. In an era of rapidly advancing cardiovascular medicine,
more peripheral vascular and neuro-interventional procedures
are being performed in the cath lab. The Xcelera system captures
all of those images and presents them to the physician at
a single workstation.
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