· Reality Check System
· Tech Zoom: For “Clarity, Convenience, and Choice”? Volumetrix!


Reality Check System

Imagine ? software that truly helps you manage the details of business reality? It’s here. Technology Partners Inc, Charlotte, NC, has released its newest Imagine Software product: IMAGINEradiology 5.0 Optimus Edition. Designed specifically for radiology, the practice-management software provides billing, management, and analysis tools that streamline workflow, improve staff productivity, and increase practice profitability.

IMAGINERadiology 5.0 offers extensive new configurations, user customizations, a streaming dashboard, and more.

“IMAGINEradiology 5.0 delivers the power of true information that is readily available to practices, enabling proactive and predictive management,” said Sam Khashman, Technology Partners CEO.

The updated program offers extensive new configurations, user customizations, increased visibility of information (including a streaming dashboard), and system integration capabilities—enhancements made possible by advances in the software technology.

Implementation of the program reduces manual data entry by 80%. Like automation elsewhere, the electronic processes help to reduce error, improve efficiencies, and provide documentation for nearly every administrative workflow process. Greater efficiencies enable increased patient volumes, which can positively impact revenue.

The core module, Practice Manager, features simple patient lookup, document management, automated note writing, instant queue assignments and distributed worklists, automated ticklers, direct billing, denial management, refunds and check writing, HIPAA auditing, and integrated report writing.

Reports detailing up-to-the-minute information on processes and productivity can be run in real time. Examples include work completed by user and charge/payment entry, adjustments, refunds, claims submission, or unbilled claims status. Standard and customized reports are available. Centralized database management permits coders to review radiology reports, demographics, and supporting information directly on the charge screen.

Charges are automatically posted. The AutoCoder features self-learning recognition and automated coding, processing both paper and electronic reports. The system has the ability to file direct to payors as well as receive electronic payments. Users also decide which clearinghouse to use.

Incomplete or incorrect claims are caught by the software on the front end, dropping potentially problematic claims into an editing queue for correction before submission. Fewer claims are subsequently denied. Those that do get denied can be prioritized within a worklist based on user-selected criteria, such as balance or date of service. The results help to maximize reimbursement, and according to the company, practices often see an increase in this revenue as a result.

Additional IMAGINEradiology modules expand functionality. The IMAGINEradiology EOBreader automates EOB and payment posting, eliminating up to 95% of associated keystrokes, according to Technology Partners. IMAGINEradiology trueICE captures and stores all patient-related data, simplifying search and retrieval as well as HIPAA audits; no storage hardware is required. IMAGINEradiology Cash Flow Prediction and IMAGINEradiology Pivot Tables feature practice analysis tools and reports. The I-Pay Web Payment Interface provides a self-pay Web interface. i3 IMAGINEradiology Interface Integration streamlines the integration of data into the program from other systems, including HIS, RIS, and PACS applications.

Based on the look and feel of Microsoft Office, the adaptive open-architecture system is appliance enabled, SQL Server 2008 ready, and Windows Vista compatible. A plug-and-play philosophy eliminates conversions and training. IMAGINEradiology is scalable and upward/backward compatible with classic or Optimus navigation.

Cost is based on the number of radiologists, rather than end users, and the system has been designed to have a total low cost of ownership. Current Imagine platform customers will pay no fees to upgrade to the new Optimus version “at their leisure.”

Tech Zoom: For “Clarity, Convenience, and Choice”? Volumetrix!

The debut of the Volumetrix Suite by GE Healthcare, Waukesha, Wis, delivers on the company’s marketing promise of “clarity, convenience, and choice.” The next-generation application for GE’s 4-slice SPECT/CT system, Infinia Hawkeye 4, Volumetrix enhances image quality, streamlines workflow, and makes prior comparisons easy. GE displayed the new software at the 55th meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM of Reston, Va), held this summer in New Orleans.

The Volumetrix Suite is comprised of two applications: Volumetrix 3D and Volumetrix IR. Both are easy to use and together can reduce a patient’s radiation exposure and time on the table. “With respect to cardiac applications, [Volumetrix] helps to improve acquisition time by up to half,” said Ron Noll, GE Healthcare’s nuclear medicine marketing manager.

Volumetrix 3D enables better image quality with 3D rendering and motion reduction and correction. The software produces integrated 3D fused images within the nuclear medicine workflow and presents a visual abstract of the exam for use by the referring physician or surgeon. Images are easily exported in a variety of formats, including JPEG files and DICOM Secondary Capture (Single and Multiframe).

Tools help to improve image clarity: segmentation tools remove obstructions; triangulation provides visibility of a defined location in all 2D slices; and the Clip and Cut Planes virtually slices the anatomy to show underlying cross-sections of CT, nuclear, or fused slices.

The complementary Volumetrix IR is a registration system that makes it easier to compare exams with those from other modalities or previous visits. “Volumetrix IR offers clinicians the choice of virtually any CT to view registered to SPECT and PET data, together with automatic registration and easy export options,” said Gene Saragnese, vice president and general manager of molecular imaging for GE Healthcare.

Exams at different times can be registered for simultaneous, synchronous study comparison, providing more accurate monitoring of a treatment’s progress through follow-up scans. Automatic rigid registration is available for: Infinia Hawkeye 4 SPECT/CT to a CT of choice; Infinia Hawkeye 4 SPECT/CT to Infinia Hawkeye 4 SPECT/CT; Discovery PET/CT to a CT of choice; Discovery PET/CT to Discovery PET/CT; and Infinia Hawkeye 4 SPECT/CT to Discovery PET/CT. Quality control and manual adjustment tools can be used to make further adjustments if needed, but manual manipulation is minimized by advances that have overcome the sometimes significant dissimilarities between different modalities.

The entire Volumetrix Suite is run on an intuitive user-friendly interface and requires little training—about 2 days, Noll estimates. Both components offer the clarity, convenience, and choice that have become the company’s mantra. Clarity is reflected in the tools, such as segmentation and Cut and Clip Planes, that enhance image quality; convenience is evident in the ease with which prior comparisons can be made and the speed with which exams are completed; and choice is available in the imaging and registration options.

For patients, this means shorter exam times; technicians find greater confidence as they are better able to assess and confirm image quality and to do so more quickly; and physicians are more comfortable with the diagnostic accuracy provided by the enhancement and registration tools.