What’s happening at HIMSS?

For many of us, the Annual Meeting & Exhibition of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society is the first show of the New Year. HIMSS 2012 will be held on February 20?24 at the Venetian-Sands Expo Convention Center in Las Vegas. And while imaging informatics solutions make up only a small slice of this broader health care technology exhibition, there is still plenty to see in the radiology technology space. Axis Imaging News asked vendors to tell us what they will be showcasing that is specifically relevant to radiology and what follows is what we learned. So read up on a handful of vendors and arm yourself with this article before you hit the HIMSS exhibit halls.

Fujifilm

FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA Inc, Stamford, Conn, will unveil the company’s latest additions to its Synapse family of medical informatics solutions at HIMSS 2012. Products to be showcased at the show include Synapse PACS 4.0; Synapse RIS and Synapse TeleRIS; Synapse 3D 3.0; Synapse Mobility 3.0; Synapse Cardiovascular; and Synapse vCloud.

Synapse PACS 4.0 includes improvements to image visualization and enhances ease-of-use to further maximize the user experience and improve overall efficiency. Synapse Cardiovascular provides a completely Web-based solution for cardiovascular imaging. Synapse 3D 3.0 is a comprehensive suite of clinical applications that is directly integrated into both Synapse PACS and Synapse Cardiovascular.

Synapse RIS and Synapse TeleRIS include an enhanced dashboard that gives the user an ability to better manage performance in real time, Synapse Financials for RIS, and a feature that will alert the user to dose management concerns for the patient. Synapse Mobility 3.0 is a zero footprint application enabling access to Fujifilm’s suite of Synapse products from handheld mobile devices, as well as Macintosh- or Window-based PCs.

Finally, Synapse vCloud enables Fujifilm to manage Synapse RIS, PACS, and related IT functions, freeing facilities to fully concentrate on delivery of care.

Carestream Health

Carestream Health Inc, Rochester, NY, will demonstrate the company’s RIS+PACS capabilities and show a works-in-progress, cloud-based portal (not commercially available) it is developing that will allow patients to access and view their own medical imaging data and share it with their physicians. The patient portal will enable a health care organization to generate a secure log-in for each patient immediately after an exam. Patients will be able to manage and share imaging information with other physicians, specialists, and health care facilities. When available, this patient portal will be part of CARE-STREAM Vue for Cloud-Based Services that provides PACS, vendor-neutral archiving, and image sharing services.

The company will also showcase its Vue PACS and Vue Connect powered by SuperPACS technology, which can eliminate the cost of data migration through use of a metadata indexing system that allows access to imaging exams stored on existing archives. Carestream’s Vue Motion zero-footprint, Web-based viewer will enable convenient on-demand access to medical imaging data by on-site or remote clinicians across the enterprise. Vue Motion has received a clearance letter from the FDA for use with mobile devices such as Apple iPads. Carestream’s Vue RIS can help health care providers adapt their imaging workflow to meet Meaningful Use requirements in the United States and government regulations in other countries. The Vue RIS is 2011/2012 compliant and was certified as an EHR module in October 2011.

Philips Healthcare

At HIMSS 2012, Philips Healthcare, Andover, Mass, will demonstrate clinical applications, interoperability, clinical decision support, and telehealth to better manage clinical information across the continuum of care. Philips will show how these capabilities support health care’s goals in four areas: reducing readmissions, patient population management, operational performance improvements, and earlier detection.

In enterprise imaging informatics, Philips will highlight the company’s new IntelliSpace PACS 4.4, which leverages the latest advances in IT technology and allows for smarter collaboration with the goal of better patient outcomes. Built on Philips’ iSite PACS, IntelliSpace PACS 4.4 elevates the user experience through open access to images and information, enhanced enterprise workflow, new clinical applications, and advanced tools for proactive service and support.

Siemens Healthcare

At HIMSS 2012, Siemens Healthcare, Malvern, Pa, will showcase syngo® Workflow, which is the RIS component of the syngo portfolio. syngo Workflow drives the radiological workflow from order entry to image and report distribution. It acts as a solution for efficient completion of core tasks in radiology: from patient registration, to examination and reporting, to making the results available, to internal and external referring physicians. Important information is available at a glance, following a role-based workflow. Additionally, syngo Workflow features ionizing radiation dose management capabilities.

syngo Workflow offers users seamless integration between HIS, PACS, and modalities to support role-based and efficient workflows; intelligent voice recognition, seamless continuation of work after interruptions, and automatic distribution of reports ensure fast report turnaround times; and enhanced productivity and patient satisfaction since statistical data is gathered quickly and reports created, maintaining an efficient facility.

iNTERFACEWARE

iNTERFACEWARE, a Toronto-based health care integration provider, will demonstrate its flagship product, Iguana, at HIMSS 2012. Iguana is specifically designed to enable health care organizations to exchange data residing across any standard including HL7, X12, XML, and JSON.

With iNTERFACEWARE, providers can easily exchange medical information residing in Radiology Information System (RIS) and Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) packages. The latest version of Iguana also enables radiologists to integrate with and exchange DICOM data directly. In addition, iNTERFACEWARE helps radiology practices to manage scheduling, registration, technologist, and radiologist workflows as well as billing and custom reporting to improve patient care while concurrently reducing costs.

Circadence

Circadence, Boulder, Colo, will demonstrate WAN optimization for Radiology at HIMSS 2012. The Circadence MVO solution offers rapid, reliable, and secure transfer of electronic image studies, data, and patient records without major changes to the existing network.

Radiologists and imaging centers using Circadence WAN optimization do not have to worry about low-quality or intermittent Internet connections impacting transfer. Testing found enhanced throughput times without compressing images and more than 300% improvement in image transfer speed.

With 21 patents, Circadence has an extensive WAN optimization portfolio. Circadence offers a client for both Android-based devices and Apple iOS, giving medical professionals quick, HIPAA-compliant access to images and patient records virtually anywhere.

These are just a few of the technology highlights you can expect to see at HIMSS 2012. There is bound to be much more on the show floor that can help your organization in a variety of ways—from achieving meaningful use to improving interoperability to enhancing enterprise imaging. See the very latest solutions at HIMSS 2012.