Siemens showcases role-based portals
The Siemens Medical Solutions Image and Knowledge Management Division introduced the newest enhancements and research to its portfolio at the 93rd scientific assembly and annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago last month.
“We have found that the combination of our role-based portals, innovative applications, and strong information systems can help our customers make significant workflow improvements,” explained Ajit Singh, PhD, president, Siemens Medical Solutions Image and Knowledge Management division. “Workflow enhancements are key to driving greater efficiency, allowing for stronger communication and time-savings among caregivers, and giving more time for patient interaction and care.”
The syngo Portal Radiologist is role-based and logically structured for radiologists performing specific tasks. Three task areas: Check Requests, Read Images and Sign Reports, allow radiologists the ability to organize their work according to the workflow step. Quick and precise reading with syngo Voice, the online dictation tool embedded within syngo Portal Radiologist, can optimize reporting quality and speed. The syngo Portal Referring Physicia, not yet available in the U.S., offers role-based workflow support, allowing referring physicians to quickly and securely interact with the radiology department. The portal allows for easy scheduling of appointments directly from the ward or referring physician’s office and offers predefined request sheets and the ability for referring physicians to quickly search for available appointment times. The work-in-progress syngo Portal Executive provides a top-down approach, allowing proactive management of issues relevant to executives and managers. The Portal Executive is not currently available in the United States. The user interface will have a high degree of customizability and will provide real-time and historical data, drilling down capabilities, trending and data-mining.
Siemens also showcased new enhancements to syngo TrueD, a multimodality application used as a tool for cancer management. The latest version of syngo TrueD enhances the ability to compare patient scans over time, by allowing the user to simultaneously display three studies, such as a baseline and two follow-up exams. Compared to earlier versions of syngo TrueD, the visualization of respiratory gated studies has improved for lesion tracking across the respiratory cycle. syngo TrueD was designed for the oncology workflow, including diagnosis, staging and assessment of cancer treatment response. The application enables efficient reading of patient scans from hybrid imaging systems and provides advanced image analysis and comparison, including a suite of change detection tools, to enable a more informed diagnosis and treatment. The newest version of syngo TrueD allows users to quickly fuse and compare up to three studies, including MR, CT, PET and SPECT imaging exams.
syngo Imaging, an underlying enabler in supporting workflow, also had enhancements ready for display at RSNA 2007. In addition to the integration with CAD applications, such as syngo TrueD and syngo Colonography PEV (Polyp Enhanced Viewing), the newest version also allows for fast and easy installation of syngo Studio, the main 2D image reading application. This functionality does not require administrator rights, allowing the tool to be launched directly from a computer desktop. Based on a centralized system architecture, syngo Imaging is adaptable to the structures and processes in hospitals or practices, ranging from a small-scale solution to a completely integrated high-end system across several locations. To give a radiologist optimized support in patient diagnosis, syngo Imaging, with syngo Studio, can be supplemented with 3D and other post processing functionalities.
“We have found that the combination of our role-based portals, innovative applications, and strong information systems can help our customers make significant workflow improvements,” explained Ajit Singh, PhD, president, Siemens Medical Solutions Image and Knowledge Management division. “Workflow enhancements are key to driving greater efficiency, allowing for stronger communication and time-savings among caregivers, and giving more time for patient interaction and care.”
The syngo Portal Radiologist is role-based and logically structured for radiologists performing specific tasks. Three task areas: Check Requests, Read Images and Sign Reports, allow radiologists the ability to organize their work according to the workflow step. Quick and precise reading with syngo Voice, the online dictation tool embedded within syngo Portal Radiologist, can optimize reporting quality and speed. The syngo Portal Referring Physicia, not yet available in the U.S., offers role-based workflow support, allowing referring physicians to quickly and securely interact with the radiology department. The portal allows for easy scheduling of appointments directly from the ward or referring physician’s office and offers predefined request sheets and the ability for referring physicians to quickly search for available appointment times. The work-in-progress syngo Portal Executive provides a top-down approach, allowing proactive management of issues relevant to executives and managers. The Portal Executive is not currently available in the United States. The user interface will have a high degree of customizability and will provide real-time and historical data, drilling down capabilities, trending and data-mining.
Siemens also showcased new enhancements to syngo TrueD, a multimodality application used as a tool for cancer management. The latest version of syngo TrueD enhances the ability to compare patient scans over time, by allowing the user to simultaneously display three studies, such as a baseline and two follow-up exams. Compared to earlier versions of syngo TrueD, the visualization of respiratory gated studies has improved for lesion tracking across the respiratory cycle. syngo TrueD was designed for the oncology workflow, including diagnosis, staging and assessment of cancer treatment response. The application enables efficient reading of patient scans from hybrid imaging systems and provides advanced image analysis and comparison, including a suite of change detection tools, to enable a more informed diagnosis and treatment. The newest version of syngo TrueD allows users to quickly fuse and compare up to three studies, including MR, CT, PET and SPECT imaging exams.
syngo Imaging, an underlying enabler in supporting workflow, also had enhancements ready for display at RSNA 2007. In addition to the integration with CAD applications, such as syngo TrueD and syngo Colonography PEV (Polyp Enhanced Viewing), the newest version also allows for fast and easy installation of syngo Studio, the main 2D image reading application. This functionality does not require administrator rights, allowing the tool to be launched directly from a computer desktop. Based on a centralized system architecture, syngo Imaging is adaptable to the structures and processes in hospitals or practices, ranging from a small-scale solution to a completely integrated high-end system across several locations. To give a radiologist optimized support in patient diagnosis, syngo Imaging, with syngo Studio, can be supplemented with 3D and other post processing functionalities.