Research proves it: Patients and caregivers alike "universally hate" CDs as a method of transferring image files. That's according to Jeffrey Carr, MD, part of a research team at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, that's investigating alternative image-sharing technologies.
To be fair, those are just initial survey results, Carr says. But it sure makes sense.
Usually patients themselves have to schlep CDs from one provider to another—often carrying them to their primary care provider after a trip to the ED. And when the discs arrive, there's no guarantee the receiving organization will be able to open or read them.
For their part, staffers and clinicians waste a lot of time struggling to open and read CD images from incompatible systems. One orthopedic surgeon told the researchers it takes 20 to 30 minutes to load outside CDs into his system. That adds up to a lot of wasted time.
And when clinicians don't have reliable access to patients' images, they may have to repeat tests, delaying diagnosis, adding to the cost of care, and causing unnecessary radiation exposure for patients.
Backed by millions in federal grant money, Wake Forest, the Radiological Society of North America, and other groups are investigating alternatives to low-tech image-sharing tools that are fast, easy, reliable and interoperable—the missing link, if you will, in so many healthcare IT solutions.
The RSNA project relies on Internet-based personal health record accounts from commercial providers to give patients access to their imaging data. Wake Forest uses a token system and walk-up kiosks with card readers at participating organizations—much like the system at an airport check-in kiosk or an ATM.
Both use the same foundation—the Cross-enterprise Document Sharing for Imaging (XDS-I) profile, created by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) International, an initiative by healthcare professionals and industry to improve the way computer systems in healthcare share information.
One common theme among projects under development is that they're patient-centered and patient-controlled. The idea is that if patients have more power over who sees their images they'll also be more engaged in their own care and work more collaboratively with their various providers. That, in turn, should improve quality of care.
"Patient involvement will facilitate much easier solutions," says Yaorong Ge, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering and part of the Wake Forest research team.
Another overarching goal of these programs—and others like them—is to create technologies that are easily accessible and affordable for providers in rural and underserved areas. Wake Forest's Carr says improved efficiencies should help pay for the technology—his team is working to quantify that. Ge adds that the government push to improve broadband coverage combined with intelligent algorithms such as prefetching and streaming, will help speed up image transfer.
Read more about the RSNA and Wake Forest programs in The Trouble with Image Sharing, published in this month's issue of HealthLeaders magazine.