The inherent inefficiency of report production has long been a source of criticism for imaging departments. A radiologist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC, is hoping to solve that problem, however.
PointDx, also of Winston-Salem, is developing a structured reporting system called Radiology Express (REX), which the firm believes will dramatically compress the seven-step radiology reporting process and serve as a bridge between PACS, RIS, and HIS systems.
"It can take two to four days to turn around a radiology report at a cost of $5 to $10 per report," according Dr. David Vining, founder of PointDx. "We can reduce that four-day turnaround to virtually nothing through the creation of a multimedia report, at a fraction of the cost."
Vining founded PointDx (formerly known as Precision Diagnostics) in 1999, initially emphasizing virtual colonoscopy software that he had been working on since 1993. As part of that initiative, the company created a reporting application. Realizing that reporting software represented a larger market opportunity, PointDx elected to focus on REX, Vining said.
"All this 3-D stuff is great and wonderful, but it's really the report we get paid for," he said.
The virtual colonoscopy software is included as part of REX, as well as other 2-D and 3-D image analysis features. CPT billing codes are used to drive the system, adding efficiency to the billing process, Vining said.
Radiologists reading a study on the PACS workstation will be able to click on an image location to identify the diagnostic finding. For now, pull-down menus allow the radiologist to assign an anatomical location and a pathologic description to the finding. PointDx is currently working on incorporating speech recognition to replace the pull-down menus, Vining said.
Other secondary features of the finding, such as a 3-D image of a colon polyp, for example, or metrics, descriptive features, priority and recommendations, and audio descriptions are automatically stored in the database, Vining said.
The resulting multimedia report is created automatically, and becomes immediately available to referring physicians via the Web, Vining said. In addition to fast report creation, REX offers the potential of mining data for health statistics and disease tracking, he said. REX can also serve as a portal, including links in the report to other medical information on the diagnostic findings, both for physicians and, potentially, even patients, he said.
PointDx plans to initially sell REX through OEM partners, and is in discussions with several large PACS and IS firms. Beta testing is set to begin in June, with installations planned at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Moses Cone (a private hospital in Greensboro, NC), and Innovative Medical Imaging (an outpatient imaging center in Boca Raton, FL).
Down the road, PointDx may elect to commercialize a stand-alone version of REX targeted at small hospitals and imaging centers, Vining said. A Food and Drug Administration 510(k) submission for REX is scheduled for later this year, with general availability targeted for the first quarter of 2002.
Although PointDx is now focusing on REX, it intends to defend its virtual endoscopy patents mightily. PointDx, which holds nine patents through Wake Forest, retained Ronald Schutz and the law firm of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi earlier this month to license its virtual endoscopy software patent portfolio. Schutz represented MRI vendor Fonar in its successful patent protection battles against several major MRI firms.
PointDx is also working on its second round of venture capital financing, hoping to raise $3 million. The company secured a little more than $2 million in funding so far in its second round, to go along with more than $1 million in first-round financing acquired last year. PointDx currently has 16 employees, with plans to double its head count by the end of 2001.
By Erik L. RidleyAuntMinnie.com staff writers
May 31, 2001
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