ONRAD Deploys Carestream’s PACS to Serve Almost 100 Radiologists, 275 Healthcare Providers

ROCHESTER, N.Y., May 19 — ONRAD, Inc., one of the nation’s largest radiology groups, implemented Carestream’s Vue PACS to handle reading and reporting of nearly 1 million imaging studies a year. ONRAD has almost 100 radiologists and provides services to 275 healthcare providers in 35 states. “This is an extremely challenging environment because of our exceptionally high volume and our need to communicate effectively with so many different imaging providers,” said Robert Lerma, ONRAD’s Vice President of Business Development and Marketing. “We conducted extensive on-site testing of multiple systems prior to selecting Carestream’s PACS. After six months of use, we are confident that this PACS delivers a flexible, futuristic platform that can meet our current and future requirements.” “Carestream has combined an advanced toolset with an intuitive interface. Our radiologists are able to work very productively and the PACS has been extremely reliable as our volumes continue to grow,” adds Morris Kelly, ONRAD’s PACS Administrator. “Our customers are extremely pleased with both the quality of our reading services and our response times.” Facilities send imaging studies directly to ONRAD’s DICOM router, which forwards all studies to Carestream's Vue PACS. The DICOM information is used to create an order within the RIS and reports are sent back to each facility using HL7 interfaces or other methods.  ONRAD delivers teleradiology services and on-site radiologists to meet the needs of healthcare providers in dozens of states. “Our goal is to create a partnership with healthcare facilities and deliver the best services to meet their needs,” said Lerma. He notes that hospitals, imaging centers and other imaging services providers look to ONRAD’s teleradiology services for after-hours coverage, overflow reading, vacation coverage and subspecialty reading. The company also provides radiologists for on-site reading and for simple or advanced interventional radiology procedures. Carestream’s web-enabled Vue PACS delivers integrated advanced visualization, 3D post processing, lesion management, dictation, critical results notification and a mammography module that eliminates the need for dedicated workstations. Carestream’s new native Vue Reporting module allows radiologists to embed key images as well as quantitative analysis in the form of tables for vessel analysis or lesion management. This clinically relevant data helps physicians make diagnostic and treatment decisions with greater confidence.   Carestream’s zero-footprint Vue Motion enterprise viewer equips referring physicians with “one click” access to embedded hyperlinks and bookmarks that allow quick and easy viewing of anatomical regions of interest. Vue Motion offers FDA clearance for clinical reading and is approved for use on popular mobile devices. Carestream’s Vue portfolio of healthcare IT solutions includes RIS, PACS, vendor-neutral archiving and the company’s Clinical Collaboration Platform that allows providers to identify and share diverse patient clinical data to help clinicians make diagnostic and treatment decisions.

Around the web

Positron, a New York-based nuclear imaging company, will now provide Upbeat Cardiology Solutions with advanced PET/CT systems and services. 

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.