What's preventing you from eliminating CDs from your radiology workflow?

How cloud native PACS and portals can help you eliminate CDs from your medical imaging workflow

Remember when we made the switch from film to digital images in radiology? It seemed like such a transformative step forward – leaving behind all the logistics involved in managing, sharing and storing patient images on film. Today, we’re poised on the edge of another transformation: the shift to cloud-based medical imaging workflows, with images and information available anywhere, anytime, for everyone who needs images, including radiologists, GPs, referring physicians and patients.

But for some hospitals and imaging centers, technology limitations are preventing the transition to a streamlined workflow. Things like a hospital infrastructure that can’t support what the radiology department want it to do; or a traditional PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) that offers limited portal add-ons; portals that support only a few workflows; or portals that are difficult for patients and physicians to use. What this means in practice is that many hospitals and clinics still use CDs and CD burners to share images and reports.

 

 

An Institution, using one CD burner, burning 10.000 CDs per year, will spend an average of 333 hours handling CDs1.

 

 

Whether you want to eliminate the use of CDs in your workflow, or implement portals that better meet the needs of all users, there is a cost-effective solution: cloud native PACS. PACSonWEB from DOBCO Medical Systems is a cloud native PACS that can eliminate these obstacles, and cover every medical imaging exchange workflow, without requiring changes to your infrastructure or organization.

These are some of the ways PACSonWEB can enhance workflows and patient care:

Dbullet All exchange workflows are fully supported.
With PACSonWEB, all workflows are supported, from the exchange of studies with other hospitals, to sharing images with referring physicians and patients, and even beyond, for collaborations with other radiology centers and regional programs. Second opinions, referring patients to other physicians or specialists, or sharing images with group practices can all be managed in PACSonWEB. You do not have to burn CDs for any exams; all images and reports can be accessed within PACSonWEB.


Dbullet Easy-to-use portals, accessible from any location.
Because they’re based in the cloud, users can access the studies from anywhere with the proper authentication and authorization. For medical professionals, PACSonWEB provides a consolidated list of all studies, patient centric, accessed with a single username and password, vs. having multiple accounts across different hospitals and centers. Patients can easily access their own images in a patient portal, using a reference number. PACSonWEB has a dedicated central helpdesk line to answer any technical questions about the portal for referring physicians and patients2. (In fact, hospitals and imaging centers that have implemented PACSonWEB Portals have seen patient referrals grow by 10% in one year, because of the improved levels of service offered to referring physicians and patients1.)


Dbullet Better emergency treatment.
In the case of heart attacks and strokes, and other emergencies, time is vital. With PACSonWEB, images are immediately available to all care providers, at every step of the patient’s journey and treatment. Images taken at one hospital are immediately available at another hospital, in the case of a patient transfer, for example. That way treatment can commence as soon as the patient arrives, rather than waiting for the CD or new imaging.


Dbullet The local hospital infrastructure is not a factor in performance.
Whether the hospital is waiting on a system upgrade, or the local infrastructure has other limitations, there is no impact on the implementation or performance of PACSonWEB, as it is not dependent on the local set-up3.

 

«PACSonWEB is extremely user friendly, fast and easy to operate, all for the benefit of the patient, the referring physician and the radiologist / medical imaging department. Moreover, PACSonWEB has a zero footprint and reduces costs. What more could you ask for?»

Dr. Annick Demeyere, Head of Radiology, Imelda Hospital, Bonheiden, Belgium.

 

PACSonWEB is cloud native.

Some PACS vendors use traditional PACS as the starting point, and build on that foundation with cloud elements such as portals. The developers of PACSonWEB took a different approach: start from the cloud to create a cloud PACS independent of any infrastructure, hardware, or local software constraints.

Want to know more about how you can eliminate CDs and CD burners, and provide easy, secure online image access to patients and referring physicians with PACSonWEB? Try our online demo!

 

 

References:

1. Data on file.

2. Dobco Medical Systems does not provide diagnostic or medical advice. The central helpdesk line provides technical support for accessing the portal only.

3. (Virtual) Hardware Requirements: the gateway can be installed on physical and virtual machines. Virtual machines are recommended.

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