University of Utah Health Care radiologist and informatics specialist Richard H. Wiggins, III, MD, CIIP, reports that it’s now so easy to consult on cases remotely in real-time that referring physicians sometimes think he’s in the reading room down the hall even when he’s reviewing cases remotely.
Wiggins is the Director of Imaging Informatics and in the Departments of Radiology, Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, and BioMedical Informatics at University of Utah Health Care in Salt Lake City.
Wiggins uses the Philips iSite PACS Workflow Layer application to “finally achieve the ‘anywhere, anytime’ ideal.” *
He explained, “I could be at a conference in Florida and receive a text from a referring physician in Utah asking me to take a look at a case. I pull out my laptop, look at the case, and using Workflow Layer we can instant message back and forth in the context of the exam to discuss it easily.”
Anytime, anywhere
“I can be anywhere, and it’s as if I’m down the hall in the reading room. That’s been one of the nice things about Philips and iSite PACS. I can pull up an image anywhere I have WiFi or cellular access.”
Currently the University of Utah Health Sciences Center performs approximately 250,000 imaging studies each year. Separate PACS for cardiology and ultrasound are connected and share images. The institution has about 5,000 registered users on PACS.
Critical Results
Wiggins also finds the critical results feature of the Workflow Layer application useful because it allows for timely and effective communication of critical results to physicians. He said, “It helps us not only communicate important findings, but also helps us easily document who we talked to and when.”
The feature is integrated into the reading environment, includes a dedicated dashboard, and allows users to export reports on the critical results and documentation to facilitate compliance with the American College of Radiology (ACR) reporting.
Peer Review
Another feature, peer review, saves radiologists time and energy, according to Wiggins.
“Radiologists can easily peer review cases as part of their normal workflow. If a study I’m looking at meets the criteria for peer review, I may get a pop-up message asking if I’d like to do that. Because I’m already looking at the study and at the prior study, it’s just one or two more clicks in addition to my normal work day to peer review it. That part of Workflow Layer has already exceeded my expectations,” he reports.
Enhanced communication
Dr. Wiggins added, “As a radiologist, I want to provide good service to my referring docs and make myself available to them. Philips and iSite PACS Workflow Layer are helping achieve that goal with personalized service that has protected me from the commoditization of radiology.”
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*It is the user’s responsibility to ensure that Philips network performance recommendations for iSite PACS are met.