Radiology Workflow - Integrated

December 20th, 2007 by Sonal Patel

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Posted in Radiology Workflow, HL7 Messaging, HL7 Integration, Healthcare IT

The technology used in imaging centers and radiology practices is rapidly evolving. These technology changes affect both the front-end and back-end radiology workflows. The front-end workflows are affected by ever changing imaging and modality technology advancements while the back-end workflows are affected by advancements in information technology (IT). Keeping up with the changes can be a challenge.

The focus of this blog is the IT back-end radiology workflow changes. The goal of healthcare IT is to make all the systems work smoothly together or interoperate for organized, seamless data flow. The first step to achieving such goals is to understand your current workflow.

In an example imaging center, the workflow might be:

Schedulers enter orders manually on the radiology information system (RIS) or orders move into the RIS electronically from external referring physicians or hospital systems.
Those orders flow to various internal systems such as the picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) and Voice Recognition (VR).
The images are acquired:
- Modalities query the modality worklist manager (PACS).
- Once the procedure is completed, images are returned to PACS.
A radiologist reads the images and dictates the results into VR.
A radiologist self-corrects and approves the reports.
The reports are distributed to RIS, PACS, Billing and the applicable referring locations.

As is possible to observe in the example radiology workflow, in an imaging center, clinical data must move to and from multiple systems. Even though the workflow is unique for each imaging center, the need to transfer clinical data is not. The moving of data is where HL7 interfaces can make the most headway towards bridging the gap for interoperability and creating that organized, seamless data flow.

Using an HL7 integration approach to move clinical data between applications helps:

Optimize information systems
Reduce errors in multiple, manual entries
Maximize radiology workflow
Facilitate growth through an efficient workflow

Whatever applications and systems are used to perform the tasks necessary in your imaging center, there is still a need to make the data flow to the right place at the right time based on the capabilities of those systems. With greater requirements for RIS-driven workflow and data exchanges with referring physicians, the HL7 Standard plays a prominent role in automating the radiology workflow.

For addition information, read an interview with the CIO at Radiology Consultants of Iowa and watch a 15-minute web seminar on what role HL7 messaging can play in radiology workflows.