ScImage reaches a milestone in perfecting the science of collaborative reading

Los Altos, CA – November 19, 2013:  ScImage is proud to solidify its leadership in delivering complex collaborative reading solutions to institutions of varying sizes. This is not a statement about what is logically possible, it is based on the knowledge and experience gained from several complex environments that have been operational for periods ranging from several months to several years. Our PICOM365 framework is empowering ScImage to architect and deliver complex solutions that bring harmonious interoperability among imaging and information platforms from various third party vendors. PICOM365 offers true vendor neutral interoperability.

Collaborative reading is not just for a few privileged institutions anymore. It is fast becoming a basic necessity for most modern practices. For accountable patient care and economic reasons, institutions and physicians’ groups must come together, share their data and expertise to provide an efficient diagnostic reading environment. The result is patient exams are read in a timely fashion, by a physician with specific clinical expertise.

When one physicians’ group is providing reading services for a single institution, workflow and data processing is relatively simple with one order feed, one image feed and one report feed. Workflow processes become exponentially more complex when multiple institutions are engaging multiple physicians’ groups to provide reading services, with the expectation of little human intervention. There are several challenges in play here:

• The rules of engagement are different for different workflow and clinical situations. Administrators must be able to define and change workflow business rules based on contractual obligations, personnel availability and ad-hoc decisions.
• Compiling a reading packet that includes the current exam, prior images AND prior reports, while routing the reading packet seamlessly around the collaborative network is the essential challenge; on-demand and just-in-time.
• Different institutions have different patient identifiers and accession number schemes. Seamless normalization of information is crucial when data enters the collaborative network, as well as when the results are returned to their respective institutions.
• Many reading groups are entrenched with their own reading and reporting tools. Delivering a reading package seamlessly to an existing PACS viewing environment and collecting and routing the final report are complex workflow hurdles that need to be custom crafted for each reading environment.
• The concept of a “Report Bank” is vital to infer business intelligence for the prior pre-fetch logic.

In addition to overcoming these complex challenges, ScImage’s PICOM365 brings other unique advantages:

• PICOM365 is an excellent and economical way to recruit outside expert reading physicians.
• PICOM365 is an end-to-end diagnostic reading environment providing a redundant reading platform when the local reading system is down.
• PICOM365’s cloud infrastructure can send image pointers and dispatch reports to any external system.
• PICOM365 can naturally be used as a vendor neutral archive (VNA) in the cloud.
• PICOM365 is the ideal neutral zone to offer physician and patient portals with a consistent universal web viewing experience on any device.

About ScImage

Founded in 1993, ScImage, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Los Altos, California. ScImage brings cost effective imaging strategies to institutions saddled with patched imaging silos and cobbled workflow. ScImage’s PICOM365 technology unifies multi-department PACS, diagnostic reporting, VNA, universal viewing and collaborative reading into a powerful platform that can be delivered on premises, in the cloud or both. ScImage is unique in the industry with a native diagnostic application suite that is advanced in Radiology, Cardiology, Orthopedics and OB-GYN. For more information about ScImage and the PICOM family of products, visit their website at www.scimage.com or call 1-866-SCIMAGE.