Medical imaging is routinely used for screening, surveillance, diagnosis and therapy. But valuable images often end up in PACS that are entirely siloed from the Electronic Health Record. EHRs play a critical role of compiling a patient’s full medical history in one place. But this record is less valuable if vital X-rays, MRIs and other scans are missing. How can busy physicians add images to the EHR so they’re easy to access in the future?
Here’s a simple solution for doctors who use athenahealth’s EHR.
Meet Mobius Capture
Mobius Capture is a mobile EHR app that allows doctors to add images to the patient chart in just a couple clicks. The software is perfect for sending images from any PACs directly to the EHR with no hassle.
Mobius is available on your desktop, smartphone or tablet. To capture images from your desktop simply open the image you’d like to save, highlight the relevant section and you’re done. The app uses name recognition to automatically detect which patient’s information you’re viewing and send it to the EHR. If you’d like, you can add a quick note about the image before saving.
Why add images to the EHR?
Providers are using imaging more frequently today than a decade ago. A recent study found that CT use increased at one facility more than 20-fold over a 22 year period. This can mean a lot of data and a lot of hassle. In many disciplines images aid in several stages of care delivery such as diagnosis, screening, treatment, monitoring and documentation. Having easy access to patient images within the EHR saves time and improves patient care.
There are three major ways enabling the EHR with images benefits providers and patients.
1. Save providers time
By saving images in the EHR, physicians save time spent logging in to separate systems and toggling between browsers. This also can reduce unnecessary back and forth with other providers who might have or need access to this data.
Doctors can also save time by adding relevant images to the EHR initially, so they don’t have to go back and sort through a large group of images again. For example, when a patient brings a CD of CT scans to a specialist, they can quickly save the relevant images and avoid revisiting the CD in the future.
2. Reduce redundant procedures
Many medical offices spend hours a week coordinating image transfer to and from other providers. Experts emphasize that image sharing across institutions is critical to reducing unnecessary, redundant procedures as well as providing comprehensive access to data to enable good patient care.
As interoperability improves, doctors can lower the barriers to image sharing by saving images to the EHR. This provides lots of obvious benefits. One of the most tangible is to help avoid unnecessary radiation exposure, which is a concern to patients and medical centers.
3. Improve data security
Without an easy way to transfer images from PACS to the EHR, many physicians find workarounds like emailing themselves the files. The problem with this is that sending patient data via email is insecure.
Doctors can use a HIPPA-compliant app like Mobius Capture to get the job done faster and more securely.
How one provider adds images to the EHR
Mark Casillas is an orthopedic surgeon in San Antonio, TX. Here’s how he explains how and why he adds images to the EHR:
“Before I used Mobius Capture storing and reviewing images was a hassle. Everyone has a different PACS system, so patients would come in with a CD of CT scans from a community hospital and a different set of X-ray films from a radiology practice in town. We used to store all those images on the desktop or a CD, but then when I would go to operate I’d have to pull up 120 cuts and find the few images I could make use of.
“Now I just go in and simultaneously while meeting with the patient I put in their CD and look at the images. I still have to review 120 cuts, but I save the 2 or 3 that are important. With Mobius I just click an icon on my desktop, outline a box on the screen, and Capture knows which patient I’m looking at and saves the image in the patient’s record for the day.”
Where to find Mobius
Want to add images to the EHR? Anyone with a Mobius Clinic account can start using Capture instantly on Windows or Mac OS X. If you’re new to Mobius Clinic, sign up for a live demo to get started with a 14-day free trial.
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