AHRA: Medical imaging will take lead in breaking health information silos

ORLANDO, Fla.—Real healthcare reform will require robust systems of health information exchange. Practice-focused business decisions have made cooperation among providers challenging in the past, but a number of factors have aligned which could force a change toward more sharing of critical patient information, according to a presentation Aug. 13 at the 40th annual meeting of AHRA: the Association for Medical Imaging Management.

Shawn McKenzie, MPA, president and CEO of Ascendian Healthcare Consulting in Sacramento, Calif., explained that as healthcare evolved, the realities of business forced providers to shift from a patient-focused model to a practice-focused model. As the number of physicians and hospitals grew, so did the competition between them.

This scarcity paradigm, as McKenzie referred to it, led to the creation of silos in healthcare. Silos exist as divisions between organizations as well as within organizations at the facility and department level. But McKenzie sees change on the horizon.

“Technology, public sentiment and integrated care delivery supported by government reforms will force change, I guarantee it, and it will force us into a synergistic paradigm,” he said.

Interoperability and sharing of critical patient information are key to this paradigm shift, according to McKenzie. Currently, patient information serves as a “hook” providers use to keep patients, and if a patient visits another provider it can be a challenge to make sure that information follows. Physicians then act on incomplete data, duplicative studies increase and costs rise.

Today’s patients are less tolerant of this model, said McKenzie. While technology was a barrier in the past, the tools now exist to make high level information exchange a reality. Government reforms, legislation such as the HITECH Act and meaningful use all serve as pressures to disassemble silos.

One key concept providers will have to grasp is that medical imaging is no longer defined by radiology, said McKenzie. It now includes cardiovascular services, pathology slides, endoscopy film, wound photos and a number of other image sources from across the “-ologies.”

To manage the massive amounts of imaging data—now measured in petabytes—and to ensure enterprise-wide access and beyond, providers will have to refocus their health IT strategies. This means consolidating systems and the adoption of vendor neutral archives. With every technology purchase, McKenzie advised providers to envision functionality beyond the organization—-to think in terms of health information exchange—and imaging will have an opportunity to lead this change.

“Medical imaging is a cornerstone to the ability to create a fluid care continuum.”