As a
physician, when it comes time to view images within their hospital’s EMR, the
experience can be frustrating. Hyland OnBase has a solution for aggregating these
disparate imaging viewers (DICOM and non-DICOM
content) into one application: Patient Window.
This solution
is described with words like “Unify”, “Connecting information silos”, “seamless
integration with EMR”. As a certified engineer working with OnBase working on
Healthcare solutions, I applaud this effort to truly help physicians find their
information efficiently. The demo looks great, but what about the
implementation?
So, how can
this silo buster get traction within the fortified walls of an EMR’s embedded
imaging viewer? Behind these applications are dedicated teams who have spent
years implementing these point solutions within the EMR. Chances are good that
these teams are managed within the EMR’s umbrella. This means the ECM's team manager will have to have discussions with the EMR's team manager to negotiate how to "unify" these applications.
Showing the
image for the patient’s case is the culmination of purchasing the machine, licensing
and configuring the software, testing it, configuring the manufacturer’s viewer
to be embedded in the EMR’s software. The team that did all of this work, had
many meetings with the informatics team to review the physician’s requirements
and industry standards, with the EMR team to review how it should be setup with
the EMR’s solutions, with IT’s infrastructure and security team to validate the
integrity of the solution, with the interface team to make sure that patient
information integrated correctly, and so on.
The silo is
not just the information, it’s the whole process. Process reengineering is a
key part of implementing this type of aggregation. I’m not saying it can’t be
done. What I’m saying is that, unless there is already an EMR process overhaul taking
place, there is a mountain to climb here.
