Interoperability and image exchange inside and outside of an Integrated Delivery Network (IDN) poses a daunting challenge as sites transition to digital imaging transfer. “An eFileroom can re-engineer the traditional hardcopy fileroom to support digital image exchange,” explained Skip Kennedy, assistant director radiology informatics for Kaiser Permanente Medical Group (Sacramento, Calif.) at a session at the annual meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM, formerly SCAR) in Austin, Texas.
   
An eFileroom should address both technical and human elements of the digital conversion. At the technical level, the eFileroom incorporates network and CD import, hardcopy digitization, study QA and tracking. Hospitals can boost buy-in and support from clerical staff by implementing clerical staff-friendly software tools.
   
Kennedy also shared the concept of a digital passbox, an intermediate system to act as a DICOM receiver and exchange information among multiple PACS.