Cardiology Software Upgrade Supports Full Integration of Data and Images Across Cardiovascular Services and HIS

St. Peter's Health Care Services Cardiac & Vascular Center (Albany, NY, USA) has iniatiated a major upgrade to its Lumedx (Oakland, CA, USA) cardiovascular clinical information system to support the integration of cardiology picture archiving communications system (PACS). The cardiovascular clinical information system upgrade includes multi-modality images with data across the CV service line and HIS, structured reporting, and web access to patient CV records.

The St. Peter's-Lumedx system encompasses cardiology information systems, device and enterprise interfaces, and workflow optimization tools to facilitate the collection, integration, and management of multiple types of data and images. Implementing these newest software releases has enabled St. Peter's to better measure quality and deliver best practices patient care, more effectively contain costs and manage resources, while creating efficiencies that have contributed to its increasing competitiveness and growth in cardiology volume.

According to Stephen Cameron, program director for St. Peter's Cardiac & Vascular Center, "The driving factor in adopting Lumedx's latest technology was that it would specifically contribute to enhancing patient care while helping our physicians and staff be more effective. For example, physicians can view entire cath and echo images--with reports--from the convenience of their office or home through one convenient access point. The result is a streamlined, efficient system that delivers a comprehensive view of the patient. Also, our paperless system has generated definite economic gains, including a 7.7% growth in cardiology volume in 2006.”

A clinical data repository of cross-modality cardiovascular information serves as the core of this software suite helping to foster data integration across the CV service line, eliminate the problems associated with isolated silos of information, while providing both physicians and staff with easier access to the data. Using Lumedx's extensive set of device and enterprise interfaces promotes greater modality integration to help streamline operations--such as reducing chart abstraction and manual data entry--and produce greater productivity.

Additional cardiology software systems include an analytics outcomes dashboard that will elevate the heart center's analysis capabilities, promoting greater understanding of clinical and operational outcomes to drive more informed decision-making. A physician documentation and structured reporting system enables physicians to complete reports at the point of care and electronically sign off at case end. For example, a physician could review echo images, do measurements and generate a report instantly in one sitting.

Most significantly, structured reporting results in the comprehensive and automated transfer of data with minimal or no manual data added to the final report. Automatic pull of demographic data makes data collection clean, reduces errors due to manual data entry, and streamlines the overall process.

Lumedx's multi-modality image management system enables physicians to view cath and echo patient studies from one workstation, creating a fully integrated PACS that streamlines workflow and increases productivity. Using Lumedx's web access and patient CV record software, physicians can view a complete record of patient events--dynamic images, reports, procedures, exams, lab data pharmacy, progress notes, and consulate notes--at the office or home. Through single sign-on, the physician can log-on and access multiple Lumedx applications, providing a seamless presentation of images and data found throughout the St. Peter's cardiology system and HIS.

"Most other vendor systems are quite limiting or cumbersome,” explained Bruce Coplin, M.D., director of inpatient cardiology at St. Peter's. "They often integrate only with their own devices--in contrast to Lumedx, which delivers multi-vendor, multi-device integration of data. In other systems, you need to login multiple times to access multiple applications. With Lumedx you log-in just once and have seamless access to all the tools.”

Cardiovascular information systems streamline both procedure and aggregate reporting, as well as help automate manual, redundant, and paper-intensive tasks and act as the necessary bridge between clinical practice, outcomes documentation, best practice integration, and quality assurance.


Related Links:
Lumedx
St. Peter's Health Care Services Cardiac & Vascular Center