Medical Imaging Collaboration Tools Enhance Care Quality

Medical Imaging Collaboration tools enable radiologists to effectively communicate with other departments.

Horizon Medical Imaging Collaboration

Horizon Medical Imaging Collaboration^TM is an advanced collaboration tool that enables radiologists and referring physicians to effectively communicate via a variety of technologies, including voice, voicemail, instant messaging and e-mail. As a result, all members of the clinical care team can collaborate in a time effective manner, making it faster to receive information that results in safe, high quality care to patients.

As an add-on to Horizon Medical Imaging^TM, the collaboration tool enhances the way caregivers interact, making it easier and less disruptive, ultimately resulting in better care decisions. Radiologists, for example, have the flexibility to communicate patient results to referring physicians using the most appropriate mode of communication. For instance, in each clinical care scenario, the radiologist can decide what communication-synchronous (e.g., phone) or asynchronous (e.g., e-mail, voicemail)-is most appropriate, based on acuity of care, profile of the physician and criticality of the results and the patient.

Collaboration tools also reduce interruptions to radiologists' workflow by making it easier to communicate with referring physicians. For example, through integration of this technology with a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), the radiologist can easily locate the specialist - and instantly contact him via his preferred method of communication (e-mail, chat, phone, videoconferencing, etc.). From there, the radiologist can set up a desktop collaboration session, where the radiologist and referring physician-regardless of their physical location-can share images and actively collaborate in real time.

Collaboration Tools Benefits

• Significantly enhances the quality of clinical care by making it possible for all members of the care team to collaborate on patient care decisions in a timely manner
• Enhances the radiologist's workflow through streamlined communications that reduce interruptions, allowing the radiologist to read more cases efficiently
• Reduces clinical errors by providing a means for greater communication among caregivers; ineffective communications is the primary cause of sentinel events such as wrong-site surgery, medication errors and delays in treatment

Collaboration Tools Features

• Organizational tools make it possible to immediately identify and locate all contacts association with a study/patient.
• Desktop collaboration tool makes it possible for physicians in geographically dispersed locations to simultaneously view, manipulate and discuss data and images.

Horizon Study Share

Horizon Study Share^TM, an add-on solution to Horizon Medical Imaging, is a web-based software system that enables radiologists and other medical imaging specialists to efficiently organize and share images, teaching files and reference case information needed during daily practice.

To learn more, contact us or visit our All About PACS Web site.