2004 July

Digital images are moving into the pathology lab as are new methods of managing them electronically in pathology reports and EMRs.

The key to HIS and LIS integration is a combination of HL7, LOINC and interface engines coupled with smart IT decisions.

William Coughlin, Chair of the Laboratory Information Systems and Medical Informatics Division of the American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC)

Thanks to web-enabled PACS, referring physicians are gaining fast access to images and streamlining overall patient care.

A combination of PACS, color and monochrome displays and image-guided surgery systems is boosting intraoperative image viewing and bringing better surgical outcomes.

X-ray film digitizers hooked to DICOM networks are allowing better flow of images to caregivers.

What has a 45 percent defective rate? Costs twice as much in the U.S. as the next industrialized nation? And causes an estimated 98,000 deaths per year (that's more than motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer and AIDS combined)?

You probably know by now that the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise initiative is moving into the cardiology realm. But if this is news to you, there are some marketplace changes underway that you may want to understand - quickly!

The Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise joint activity by HIMSS and RSNA, which defines profiles based on standards such as DICOM and HL7, just released the new PDI (Portable Data for Imaging) integration profile as one of several supplements in their draft for trial implementation.