Management Software Enhances Image-Enabled Electronic Medical Record Systems

This optional feature, the Watch Clinician Patient Repository Access for Carestream Enterprise Information Management (EIM), developed by Eastman Kodak Co. (Rochester, NY, USA), is now available worldwide.

"Our newest EIM software enhancement provides nurses, physicians, and other clinicians with centralized access to a variety of critical imaging exams,” said Michael W. Jackman, general manager, Healthcare Information Solutions, and vice president, Eastman Kodak Co. "In addition, this software can help image-enable EMRs, since these systems are usually limited to transactional data and do not offer access to imaging applications.”

Physicians, for example, can open imaging files stored in cardiology, oncology, and other imaging systems in addition to traditional radiographic procedures available through the picture archiving and communications system (PACS).

Cardiology and oncology studies are typically available only from dedicated system workstations. This simplified image access enhances the diagnostic process and simultaneously improves staff and clinician productivity by negating the need to go to several locations. Access is tightly controlled by system administrators: physicians and staff may be granted either read-only or read/write privileges, and access can additionally be limited to individual patients or specific exam modalities.

Kodak's new viewing software provides access to images through a web-based content browser that allows users to view patient files archived on systems managed by Kodak's EIM platform. In addition to imaging studies, the new software option provides access to other types of fixed content, including lab reports and a variety of patient documents.

Kodak's content browser is capable of launching applications (such as Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine [DICOM] viewers, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Paint) so the desired medical record can be displayed on any personal computer (PC). An EMR can use a URL link to provide access to Kodak's software, just as the EMR links to other databases in an organization.

Kodak's Carestream EIM platform provides intelligent, enterprise-wide management of imaging studies and other applications archived on a variety of storage systems. The platform also provides the ability to capture a variety of reports from clinical and hospital information systems using an HL7 interface and supports XDS protocols initiated by IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) to enhance sharing of fixed content records. IHE has defined a set of standards-based integration profiles for information exchange that includes cross-enterprise document sharing (XDS).

These systems can be integrated with a customer's existing storage area network or network-attached storage systems. This software option is part of Carestream Information Management Solutions. The solutions portfolio also includes Carestream Regional Information Management (RIM) for intelligent, enterprise-wide storage management on a regional level and Carestream Hosted Information Management (HIM), which provides business continuity and disaster recovery by hosting an organization's data remotely at a secure Kodak data center.

This software is composed of software, industry-standard hardware, and professional services that can include network analysis and upgrades, data migration, secure email service, and other options. The architecture can be scaled to meet the needs of small-to-large hospitals and medical practices as well as regional or national healthcare information systems--all within the same software framework.


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