Radiologists Hop Aboard the Meaningful Use Train
As a specialty, radiology touches many aspects of patient care, from screening to diagnosis to monitoring and therapy. Therefore, including radiologists in the hospital's meaningful use attestation process whenever possible is something that CMIOs and CIOs need to be actively involved in, Keith J. Dreyer, DO, PhD, vice chair of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and chair of the IT government relations committee at the American College of Radiology, says in this month's cover story.
Dreyer explains how meaningful use will affect radiologists, while taking into consideration the perspective of the CMIO. To attest to meaningful use and receive incentive payments, radiologists need to have such information as a patient's height and weight, added to their workflow and systems.
In addition to assisting radiologists, CMIOs need to lead the discussions on extending system functionality commonly found in the RIS and PACS for radiologists to comply with meaningful use, Dreyer says. However, keep in mind that radiology IT certification is currently limited—with many RIS products only expected to receive modular certification—so facilities need to work with their vendors to find the best capabilities. Others will seek to certify by going through a hospital's inpatient or ambulatory EMR.
That's the message from Diagnostic Radiologist Kevin W. McEnery, MD, at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, in this month's AMDIS Connection. CMIOs should engage their radiology colleagues to find ways to successfully implement an EHR and other necessary clinical process improvements.
"While radiology services often have considered the PACS and RIS as core operational systems, the requirements for meaningful use will make the EHR a key radiology clinical IT system," he says. "For radiologists, meaningful use of an ambulatory EHR purports an opportunity to transform the role of radiologists from interpreters of images to actual imaging clinical consultants."
Ultimately, it's important for CMIOs to work with their radiologist colleagues toward the goal of implementing more advanced clinical systems. Isn't collaboration one of the end goals of these nationwide efforts?
And another resource for radiologists on meaningful use is radiologyMU.org. In addition to this web site, a new book designed to help radiologists, "The Radiologist's Guide to Meaningful Use," is scheduled for release. To learn more, visit theMUguide.com.
Please let us know how your efforts with meaningful use are going.
Dreyer explains how meaningful use will affect radiologists, while taking into consideration the perspective of the CMIO. To attest to meaningful use and receive incentive payments, radiologists need to have such information as a patient's height and weight, added to their workflow and systems.
In addition to assisting radiologists, CMIOs need to lead the discussions on extending system functionality commonly found in the RIS and PACS for radiologists to comply with meaningful use, Dreyer says. However, keep in mind that radiology IT certification is currently limited—with many RIS products only expected to receive modular certification—so facilities need to work with their vendors to find the best capabilities. Others will seek to certify by going through a hospital's inpatient or ambulatory EMR.
That's the message from Diagnostic Radiologist Kevin W. McEnery, MD, at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, in this month's AMDIS Connection. CMIOs should engage their radiology colleagues to find ways to successfully implement an EHR and other necessary clinical process improvements.
"While radiology services often have considered the PACS and RIS as core operational systems, the requirements for meaningful use will make the EHR a key radiology clinical IT system," he says. "For radiologists, meaningful use of an ambulatory EHR purports an opportunity to transform the role of radiologists from interpreters of images to actual imaging clinical consultants."
Ultimately, it's important for CMIOs to work with their radiologist colleagues toward the goal of implementing more advanced clinical systems. Isn't collaboration one of the end goals of these nationwide efforts?
And another resource for radiologists on meaningful use is radiologyMU.org. In addition to this web site, a new book designed to help radiologists, "The Radiologist's Guide to Meaningful Use," is scheduled for release. To learn more, visit theMUguide.com.
Please let us know how your efforts with meaningful use are going.