Dear Healthcare IT Insider,
Over the past 20 years, it's been fascinating to watch the process by which radiology professionals adopt healthcare IT and imaging informatics innovations. Some take off like wildfire, others plod along.
Structured report templates have been one of the latter. The development of macros to make speech recognition systems easier to use and to capitalize upon the technology's workflow acceleration potential was a major building block.
In an exemplary effort, RSNA developed a library of best-practice, free-of-charge, downloadable report templates for any radiologist in the world to use or modify. While structured templates are deplored for reducing individuality, their uniformity is ideal for data mining.
But how good are the templates? That's the subject of our Insider Exclusive, available to you before the rest of our AuntMinnie.com members.
Traditional transcription services remain robust, however. Senior editor Erik L. Ridley investigates the latest research report about this radiology services market sector.
Regardless of how reports are prepared, sign-off is another issue. A teaching hospital has expedited the process by equipping its radiologists with notebook computers and an email alert system. Learn about its results by clicking here.
If you want to learn more about qualifying for meaningful use, check out PACS consultant Michael J. Cannavo's latest chapter on "Building a Better PACS."
Finally, take some time to peruse Alberta's new patient and physician portal. I was very impressed. You can access the links by clicking here.
AuntMinnie.com will be attending the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) meeting next month. Remember to check in with your Healthcare IT Digital Community, and we hope to see you there. And, if you'd like a sneak peek at some of the topics to be discussed at SIIM 2011, be sure to attend our PACS in an Age of Change Spring Edition virtual conference on May 17. More information is available at pacsspring.auntminnie.com.
