New Carestream PACS WIP Designed to Integrate Images with Reports; Enable Cost-Effective Teleradiology Capabilities

GENEVA, Switzerland, Feb. 5 ― At ECR 2014 Carestream will show a new generation of its Vue PACS platform (as a work in progress) that is designed to create productivity-enhancing capabilities for radiologists and referring physicians including:

• Embedding access to key image data using links within the report, which merges images into the reporting workflow and  
• An innovative teleradiology module that gives remote radiologists access to prior exams and automatically sends radiology reports to the requesting facility—all without requiring significant investment by healthcare facilities or radiology/teleradiology groups.

“Radiology images and radiology reports have always been separate systems. Combining the radiologist’s diagnosis with links to key imaging data is intended to revolutionise the traditional reporting process,” said Cristine Kao, Carestream’s Global Marketing Director for Healthcare Information Solutions. “We will demonstrate at ECR the ability for radiologists to insert bookmarks that contain key images—including those with vessel analysis or measurement data—into radiology reports. Our goal is to enhance the level of diagnostic information provided to physicians and to help optimise treatment decisions.”

Embedding patient medical images in the report is a further enhancement of the native reporting capabilities available with Carestream’s Vue PACS.

New Approach to Teleradiology
The new PACS also will offer an optional Vue for Teleradiology module (also a work in progress) designed to enable efficient off-site reading and reporting by remote radiologists for multiple healthcare facilities. The new module will employ Carestream’s Vue Connect platform, which will enable radiologists to access worklists from unaffiliated healthcare providers and automatically deliver reports back to each facility. Carestream’s Vue Motion zero footprint image viewer will be used to transfer the imaging studies. Vue Motion currently enables access to imaging studies and radiology reports on mobile devices such as an iPad by referring physicians around the world.   

Carestream also will demonstrate the ability of its Vue Motion viewer to support 3D capabilities as a work in progress. Vue Motion is currently a clinical viewer for reports and imaging studies that is able to show imaging comparisons and post-processed images. New clinical functionality is expected to include: 1) the use of bookmarks in a radiology report to navigate to key images or imaging data and 2) MPR and 3D rendering, which goes beyond the current ability to view the post-processed images.

 “We already have extensive capabilities in our portfolio, so we are able to expand the functionality of these platforms to deliver a new model for teleradiology that involves minimal investment by reading radiologists and healthcare facilities,” Kao explained. “This new teleradiology feature is designed to allow hospital-based radiology groups to perform remote reading for other facilities. It will also be attractive to radiology or teleradiology groups that want to expand the number of providers they service and optimise the expertise available within their groups.” 

Kao added that Vue for Teleradiology is designed to satisfy the need for remote radiologists or teleradiologists to have access to previous imaging studies and radiology reports as well as other patient information. “Having access to this information is required to make an accurate diagnosis, and not having access to it may cause the patient to incur unnecessary additional testing, which was one of the key points of a recent ACR White Paper on Teleradiology.”  

Carestream’s new PACS platform will employ 64-bit architecture, which is designed to optimize server performance to help enhance the new reporting and teleradiology services, as well as other functions.