Image Share aims to facilitate electronic transfer of images by radiologists to patients via image-enabled personal health records (PHRs). It is now under way at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN; the University of California, San Francisco; the University of Chicago; the University of Maryland Medical Center; and Mount Sinai Medical Center.
As expected for any project of this magnitude, there have been some initial challenges. Presenter Dr. Yousaf Awan of the University of Maryland will share the experience of a national help desk that was set up to assist patients participating in the project.
The help desk has worked with patients to solve a number of problems, such as inability to log into the server or to create an account, an inability to access images due to token and password issues, miscellaneous issues with the PHR vendor, and more.
Several technical difficulties have arisen with Image Share, some of which were expected and some that were not, Awan noted.
"These problems seem to all be mainly IT-related and can readily be solved," he said. "Once this image sharing project becomes more refined and efficient, it can serve as a very useful tool that would help empower patients over their own imaging, reduce healthcare costs, and also decrease unnecessary radiation exposure to patients by decreasing repetitive imaging on a patient."
