Many facilities and physician practices are struggling to handle POC US and other non-traditional images. Typically, these images are referred to as "encounter-based" because they are often performed during a patient encounter. This is different from the "order-based" imaging we do in radiology. These encounter-based images need to be archived and retained for future reference. However, there is no standard process for linking them to a patient account or archiving them, making it difficult to do so. We've all seen many listserv questions related to the archiving (or not) of POC US images.
IHE Radiology has been working on the technical standards required to support the capture, archiving, and sharing of these non-traditional images. For those unfamiliar with IHE, it is a non-profit organization sponsored by RSNA and HIMSS whose purpose is to develop interoperability standards our system vendors can then incorporate into their systems. IHE has been responsible for much of the automation that exists in radiology today. I believe AHRA, as an organization, is about to, if they've not already, joined IHE as a participating member.
There is a post on the IHE Radiology LinkedIn group page and the RBMA LinkedIn group page describing an upcoming webinar announcing one of our newest profiles - Encounter Based Imaging Workflow (EBIW). If this is an issue at your facility you may want to consider attending the webinar. It will be a little technical, but I guarantee you will learn something new (particularly if you're at all interested in Radiology IT and advances in interoperability).
Note: If you are not a member of the respective LinkedIn group you will need to join it before being able to access the article.
------------------------------
Michael Bohl, COO
Radiology Group, PC, SC
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mbohl
Twitter: @BohlM
IHE Radiology Planning Committee Co-chair
------------------------------