Users of the SeeMyRadiology solution can now download the iPhone and iPad application.
While “the cloud” might be a buzzword in the consumer electronics market and even in the advancing health care IT environment, for AccelaRAD and customers of its SeeMyRadiology solution, working with the cloud constitutes just another day at the office. The SeeMyRadiology service gives imaging facilities, physicians, and patients secure access to medical images and reports from any Web-enabled browser, allowing patients to upload and manage their medical images, as well as giving physicians the ability to review scans and studies both on-call and within a health care facility. With this emphasis on accessibility and ease of use, it is only natural that SeeMyRadiology is entering the burgeoning mobile application industry.
Users of the SeeMyRadiology solution can now download the iPhone and iPad application, which allows them to connect directly to the SeeMyRadiology cloud and utilize a full range of search and image-manipulation tools. By combining the company’s cloud computing with this application, SeeMyRadiology enables institution and physician users to instantaneously access and share diagnostic quality images and reports through a single, mobile Web portal.
Orlando Health, a series of facilities located in Florida, has been using the application since its inception—Timothy B. Bullard, MD, MBA, CMO Business Development/Innovation, Orlando Health, even claims that the idea for the app originated from his facility. As the health network’s use of and interaction with the application increased, they found that it was becoming the way they did business.
“To our knowledge, no one had a mobile app at that point, at least not one that linked images from outside hospitals,” said Bullard. “People may have had one that applied to their own internal PACS system. The app really wasn’t the motivator to use the service. It just morphed into that as we started to explore it more. There were more and more reasons to go down that road.”
“We’ve been able to weave that into our workflow to a point that it really is the way that we do business,” said Carlos Carrasco, corporate director of business development and innovation at Orlando Health.
Aside from using the application for its telemedicine purposes, Orlando Health utilizes the solution in the facility to expedite diagnosis and patient stays. As a part of the SeeMyRadiology cloud, images can be uploaded in several different ways: patients can upload the images and studies independently, prior to checking into a hospital; a disc with the images can be given to check-in nurses who will upload the images; or referring physicians can have the images transferred to the cloud. Once the images are part of the database, physicians can locate and view the images in real time on a mobile device.
With the SeeMyRadiology application, providers can instantaneously access and share diagnostic quality images and reports on an iPad.
“I think the greatest capability for us is the fact that we can get, in real time, images to patients who are being transferred,” said Bullard. “That has made a difference frequently in both treatment plan or triage of the patient.”
After some early growing pains that Bullard attributes to a lack of focus—getting referring physicians to use the solution and in-house staff to remember to utilize it—the throughput and efficiency of the facility have increased. Although Bullard can’t attribute this directly to the SeeMyRadiology mobile app, he does say that the cloud image-sharing functionality is what has helped take their workflow to the next level. Bullard does note, however, that physicians have all enjoyed using the mobile application.
“As you can imagine, the more things you can put on one device, especially one that is user-friendly and has really good quality images that make a physician’s life much easier, the better,” said Bullard. “For us, we have seen that better triage decisions have been made because of real-time access to diagnostic imaging.”
But for Orlando Health, all of these newfangled devices are worthless unless they actually improve patient care. With the SeeMyRadiology application, they certainly feel like they’ve achieved that goal.
“It’s really important to note that this is entirely a patient care initiative,” said Carrasco. “It was about improving our ability to make decisions about patients and improve patient care. People always want to know ROI and business stuff, but really the thing that drove this for us is we wanted to make a difference in the way that patients are cared for.”
