Many hospitals use Point of Care (POC) Ultrasound units somewhere in their facility today. However, most (nearly all?) facilities struggle to integrate the patient information and images from the POC US unit into their EMR and PACS.
If this sounds familiar, there is an interesting discussion going on in the IHE Radiology LinkedIn group about one of IHE Radiology's newest profiles - Encounter Based Imaging Workflow (EBIW). IHE designed EBIW to function like Scheduled Workflow does for our other modalities (e.g., modality worklist, etc.), in that upon adoption it will allow the POC US units to interface with the other hospital systems and seamlessly share the required information and images. The Technical Framework for EBIW is available here.
The IHE Radiology LinkedIn Group discussion going on right now focuses on the RFP/RFI language facilities may want to include when soliciting information from the POC US vendors. To join the IHE Radiology LinkedIn Group simply search for the IHE Radiology group and submit a request to join. Click here to learn more about IHE and IHE Radiology.
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About IHE: IHE is an initiative by healthcare professionals and industry to improve the way computer systems in healthcare share information. IHE promotes the coordinated use of established standards such as DICOM and HL7 to address specific clinical needs in support of optimal patient care. Systems developed in accordance with IHE communicate with one another better, are easier to implement, and enable care providers to use information more effectively.
Mike Bohl