Enterprise imaging technology helps health systems and hospitals make radiology information more interoperable and accessible across clinical and business lines. That’s because the technology, which includes software that retrofits with existing systems or new hardware that provides interoperable solutions, allows images and other multimedia clinical content to be captured, reviewed, stored, distributed and integrated into other technology systems such as EHRs and other vendor neutral viewers.

Enterprise imaging solutions will comprise 27% of imaging information technology, archiving, and management purchases by 2021, according to a report by 

. The report notes that enterprise imaging is also the fastest growing segment of the imaging technology market.

How enterprise imaging creates business insight

Because traditional imaging technology is often siloed so that image capturing, storage, and analytics are separate functions from the rest of the IT systems, investing in an enterprise imaging system benefits more than just a hospital’s radiology department, says Mitchell Goldburgh, global solutions manager of enterprise imaging and analytics for NTT DATA Services technology company.

“By uniting all the functions on one platform, an enterprise system provides greater insight into operations through business intelligence and operational dashboards, and allows users to move more easily through their work,” he says. “Work flows are organized in one system and users can access images and reports in a variety of locations and formats. Data can be more easily integrated for predictive and prescriptive analytics, for population health and other purposes.”

An enterprise system speeds up efforts to improve quality, use resources more efficiently, and monitor patient experience factors, Goldburgh says, noting that it also reduces the complexity of maintaining image data systems, because there is one repository with a common set of work flows.

Finally, he says, enterprise imaging can provide a complete record of all imaging across multiple EHRs and health systems, and therefore increase collaboration and improve care quality.

Costs for enterprise imaging technology vary depending on required functionality by intradepartment and interdepartment care coordination, Goldburgh says. Ultimately, he says the technology should lead to cost savings due to the consolidation of work processes.

Case study: Phoenix Children’s Hospital

Phoenix Children’s Hospital began using enterprise imaging technology in March 2017, as a part of a 15-year strategic partnership with Philips. The partnership gives the hospital access to advanced computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and angiography, along with patient monitoring, clinical informatics, and 3D printing that allows for research and innovation along with integrated picture archiving and communication systems and other IT solutions, says Richard Towbin, MD, division chief of radiology at Phoenix Children's Hospital.

“We’ve had a long-term relationship with Philips going back 10 years, so we have been acquiring equipment based on our needs over a period of time. The enterprise agreement extended it and formalized aspects of it,” Towbin says, adding that the agreement moves beyond radiology to include other hospital IT components.

Silvie Casanova, public relations director of Philips North America, says a long-term enterprise imaging partnership between vendors and health systems can include:

 First-to-market medical technologies; and
 

Integrated solutions that combine hardware, software, and make information between IT systems interoperable (such as imaging systems and EHRs).

“We engage in new business models with shared accountability to improve health outcomes. It’s not just about buying technology from us, we see Phoenix as a partner that we are codeveloping technologies with,” Casanova says. “That way we can possibly get other health systems to adopt the same technology and we can support those health systems with what we codeveloped with Phoenix Children’s.”

Since adopting the new imaging and clinical informatics technology, Towbin says that the hospital’s radiology department has improved CT dose management using iterative reconstructions of images. Also, the 3D laboratory, which is part of the enterprise imaging technology, allows them to create life-size models of organs and tumors to study alongside MRI and CT images.

“We have been able to reduce radiation doses between 30% to 70%, if not more, at the same maintaining or improving image quality. This allows us to make better diagnoses,” Towbin says. “We’re looking to develop efficient processes for patient turnaround time, cost management, and radiation exposure reduction.”

In the next decade, more analytic components will be added to imaging, and artificial intelligence will be a key part of image evaluation, says Towbin. Monitoring devices and molecular imaging will also help develop more precision therapies that will lower healthcare costs and help predict outcomes.

Donna Marbury is a writer in Columbus, Ohio.

Articles

What enterprise imaging technology is and how it could help providers improve care quality.

How Enterprise Imaging Technology is Changing Healthcare

This year’s top 10 emerging healthcare industry leaders hail from a broad spectrum of industry segments. They are pharmacists, doctors, health plan executives, and technology entrepreneurs.

Our editorial advisory board members faced the difficult task of culling through more than 30 well-deserving nominees, and selecting their top 10 standouts.

To be considered, candidates had to meet the following requirements:

Worked in the industry 15 years or fewer;

Led key initiatives at their organizations or relevant organizations;

Taken actions that led to measurable, positive industry impacts;

Accomplished something new or unique in the industry; and

Continued to take on more advanced roles and responsibilities in their managed care career path.

With many great submissions, the decision was tough. Here are the top 10.

Euan Ashley, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and genetics at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease, Stanford University

Ashley joined Stanford’s faculty in 2006 and led a team that carried out the first clinical interpretation of the human genome. By applying genomics to medicine, Ashley is helping patients and families with genetic risk of heart disease manage their condition and health. He works with colleagues to diagnose and treat entire families who are at risk for life-threatening heart abnormalities using genetic sequencing. This approach helps identify and treat rare and previously undiagnosed diseases. He was also the first co-chair of the steering committee of the National Institutes of Health’s Undiagnosed Diseases Network.

MHE: Why did you choose your profession? 

 Growing up in the west of Scotland, a region with one of the highest rates of heart disease in the world, I saw my father-a general practitioner-deliver amazing, personalized care to the community. I could think of no higher calling than to try to emulate that.

What has been your biggest learning experience? 

 Some of our most important lessons come from outside our industry. In most sectors, you aim to proactively identify problems and address them before they occur. In medicine, we rarely get ahead of disease; instead, we treat it when it occurs.

What change would you like to see in healthcare in the next 10 years?

 We have to become much more proactive. We need to better understand people’s risks and implement programs that help mitigate these risks before disease occurs. At Stanford Health Care, we call that precision health-using technology to predict, prevent, and cure disease precisely.

If you could sit down to dinner with anyone involved in healthcare, who would it be?

 I would love to sit down and chat with Peter Abildgaard. In 1775 Denmark, he figured out that an electric shock can stop and restart the heart. He tried it on a chicken and basically invented the defibrillator.

David Calabrese, RPh, MHP, senior vice president and chief pharmacy officer, OptumRx

Over the last 12 years of his career, Calabrese has dedicated his work to pharmacy benefit management. His leadership work in areas such as opioid risk management, evidence-based pharmacy and therapeutics committee execution, compound drug management, and pharmacy benefit management transparency have been well-publicized as key benchmarks within the industry.

I followed in the footsteps of my grandfather, who ran an independent pharmacy in our Connecticut hometown. I was inspired at an early age by his integrity, sense of caring, dedication to the profession, and how well-respected and valued he was among those he served within our community. Throughout my career, I’ve attempted to emulate his professionalism and combine that with the strong sense of accountability and work ethic my parents instilled in me, to help drive further advancements in population-based pharmacy care.

An appreciation for the enormous value of effective data management and analytics in helping to transform our healthcare system from a “volume-based” business to a much more desirable “value-based” model. Within Optum, our ability to harness the power of such capabilities, extending well beyond just pharmacy data, has enabled important advancements in clinical programming. Transforming data into timely, meaningful “next best actions” is helping to empower enhanced provider and patient engagement, drive more rapid adoption of new evidence-based standards, and more positively impact both the overall quality and economics of care.

While I’ve witnessed enormous strides in advancing the state of healthcare in the United States over the years, I still remain fairly disheartened by the level of disconnectedness that prevails across our industry. My hope is that the future state will more closely reflect one in which data and electronic health information is more fully unlocked and seamlessly shared across the healthcare continuum to achieve more patient-centered, higher-quality care, greater cost-efficiency, and a healthier society.

It would be Sidney Garfield, MD, the lesser-known cofounder of Kaiser Permanente and one of the pioneers of managed healthcare in the United States. Throughout his career, he held firmly to the belief that healthcare should not simply be focused on care for the sick, but more broadly emphasize a focus upon the entire spectrum of care from prevention, to education, to wellness and health maintenance. His ultimate goal was to make healthcare more accessible, efficient, and affordable for everyone, while still providing the highest quality medical care. Today, his vision remains as a beacon of guidance for advancing the future of healthcare.

Tina Freese Decker, MHA, MSIE, FACHE, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Spectrum Health

Freese Decker oversaw a $300 million transformation of care models and installation of Epic, an electronic clinical and revenue cycle platform. She also championed the launch of MedNow at Spectrum Health, a proprietary telemedicine service. By employing a virtual medicine strategy, the health system reduced hospital utilization and costs, and increased virtual visits by 355% over the prior year. In addition, the health system saw positive movement in employee and physician satisfaction during this extensive care transformation effort. Feese Decker has a commitment to building engagement, collaboration, and a culture of inclusivity supported a “people first” environment.

Freese Decker was also integral to Spectrum Health’s graduate medical education transition to a direct sponsorship model, resulting in a new Spectrum Health-Michigan State University department for 300 residents and fellows. This model improves the learning experience by increasing connectivity and engagement between residents, fellows, and faculty physicians.

I saw a need to remove barriers, make access easier for everyone, and positively impact the community’s health for generations to come. A consumer partnership focus is fundamental to my leadership strategy as evidenced by our health system’s new digital tools-MyHealth patient portal and MedNow telemedicine tool, which help more than 500,000 consumers every year.

The speed at which our industry is changing forced me to realize that we needed to lead rather than follow; to be innovative and create new solutions rather than be reactive. We must push the boundaries and conceive of new ways to provide care and coverage. As a result, we are collaborating with new and different partners such as major retailers and genetic wellness researchers. We have also developed new care models, such as community health workers who visit patients in their homes to assist them with health needs.

I would like to see health systems be aligned with keeping people healthy and reducing the total cost of care. This will require innovative business models, a focus on delighting and engaging with consumers, and new payment models that reward health and wellness through prediction and prevention.

I would prefer to meet someone outside of the industry for a different perspective: Alan Mulally, former president and CEO of Ford Motor Company, who brought it back from the brink of bankruptcy. He transformed the company to think and work differently. Healthcare is being disrupted by new entrants to the industry. To be successful as an incumbent, we need to understand how others improved and embraced ideas. We must take our legacy systems and culture and reshape them into a 21st century, consumer-first organization.

Grant Geiger, founder and CEO, EIR Healthcare

Geiger, 30, started his healthcare career by first working for Siemens Healthcare and later for Cerner Corp., developing products and services for the healthcare information technology industry. At Siemens Healthcare, he became the youngest director in the company and led a project management team that oversaw a $23 million a year capital budget and worked on $100 million in projects.

Geiger started EIR Healthcare in 2016 to continue his father’s legacy of engineering and design. EIR creates modular healthcare rooms that decrease construction time by 30% to 50% and money spent by 30% compared to traditional construction when building hospitals. These pre-fabricated hospital rooms are delivered to a healthcare facility. Called MedModular, the product is the first of its kind to link industrial engineering, ship building, and hospital construction. Rooms are inserted into a building and are already wired for electric, HVAC, and plumbing-creating a plug-and-play solution.

I always felt like my profession chose me. I graduated from Drexel University and participated in its co-op program, which allowed me to gain real-world work experience while in school. Since then, I’ve always worked in healthcare. It’s the best way to have a positive influence on society.

My biggest learning experience, which has been reaffirmed time and again, is at the end of the day, the people in our industry do care about human life. We want to improve outcomes for everyone. This has taught me compassion and knowledge of the human experience. So many people struggle daily with health issues. Our industry is continuously searching for ways to improve the patient experience.

I would like to see the introduction of the next generation of healthcare leadership and thinking. These leaders will push the tipping point within life science, pharma, information technology, and infrastructure. If we are able to introduce significant changes within healthcare, simultaneously we will usher in innovation in the delivery of care that hasn’t been seen in almost 100 years.

Florence Nightingale-simply because I would love the opportunity to have a current conversation with someone who had such a grand vision. Her ideas and concepts around care for patients, medical statistics, and training standards ushered in a major revolution in care in the 19th century. Perhaps even now she would have ideas and suggestions on opportunities for reform today.

Veena Goel Jones, MD, medical director, Digital Patient Experience, Sutter Health and Pediatric Hospitalist at Sutter Health’s Palo Alto Medical Foundation

Jones completed inaugural fellowships in pediatric hospital medicine and clinical informatics programs at Stanford University. She joined Sutter Health in 2016 at age 30 as medical director of digital patient experience, while simultaneously practicing clinically as a pediatric hospitalist. She helps set clinical priorities for digital health implementations including the organization’s online patient portal, telemedicine initiatives, off-site call center operations, and strategic partnerships, and offers subsequent stewardship over the operational implementations of these programs. Her passions lie in harnessing technology and digital tools to empower patients and their families to make informed decisions as they navigate all aspects of their healthcare.

 It is my greatest privilege to help children and their families navigate illnesses and the healing process as a pediatrician. I chose this profession because I have always been humbled and moved by children’s innocence and resilience. During the course of my medical training, I also developed a passion to improve the overall quality and delivery of care within healthcare systems. I am fortunate to have found a career that allows me to leverage digital technology to lead organizational change, while also revolutionizing the experience of patients and providers.

 The most powerful experiences I have had in healthcare have been at the patient bedside, from seeing a family struggle to access care for a loved one, to holding a parent’s hand as they have grieved the loss of their child, to bringing a smile to an ailing patient’s face. These are just a few examples of situations that have taught me that no matter what incentives are created by healthcare laws, hospital policies, and financial models, at the end of the day, the field of healthcare is about helping people. Maintaining this perspective keeps me grounded and keeps the patient at the forefront of my mind when it comes to making decisions and leading change.

 I would like to see digital health solutions more thoughtfully integrated into healthcare delivery systems to make it easier for people to access the right care, via the means they desire, when they need it. From artificial intelligence platforms to telemedicine, there is great potential for such technology to become ubiquitous within healthcare if payment and incentive models can evolve to make care more affordable.

 William Osler, MD-the father of modern medicine. He pushed against previously accepted standards in medicine with his vision for patient-centered medical education. I would be fascinated to get his perspectives on innovating and adapting how we can provide patient-centered care in the digital age.

Erin Hafer, MPH, director, New Programs Integration and Network Development, Community Health Plan of Washington (CHPW)

Hafer has extensive experience working with managed care and delivery systems in integrating healthcare reform opportunities through strategic planning, product development, payment model innovation, and legislative advocacy. She partners closely with federal and state agencies and community partners on healthcare transformation activities. Hafer has developed models to improve access to care for individuals with complex conditions, such mental health and substance use disorders. One such model includes the innovative Mental Health Integration Program (MHIP), which embeds mental health professionals in the primary care delivery system. MHIP outcomes include decreasing inpatient admissions, lowering arrest rates for patients receiving services, reducing the average time to improve clinical depression symptoms by half; and saving the hospital more than $11.2 million during the initial 14 months of statewide MHIP implementation, a net savings of $66 per member per month.

 I am driven by a commitment to social justice and equity. After starting my career in community organizing with migrant farmworkers and political organizing, I worked in healthcare advocacy. Given my desire to affect change at the health systems’ level and improve population health strategies, the next natural step was to pursue my master’s degree in public health. I was drawn to CHPW due to its mission as a not-for-profit health plan, governed by federally qualified community health centers. In my 11 years at CHPW, I’ve been fortunate to work in several different business areas including public policy, product development, strategy and analytics, and network development. These experiences allowed me to focus on both operational implementation and health systems innovations.

 Working in product development and health system innovation can be challenging, especially in an ever-changing environment. There is often tension between operational performance and innovation. Building a sustainable culture for innovation requires dedicated resources and an intentional focus on innovation as an organizational goal.

 I would like to see better integration of physical and behavioral healthcare regardless of the care setting and a stronger incorporation of social determinants of health such as housing status, income, education, and ethnicity/race. While there is general acknowledgment of the role that behavioral health and social determinants of health play in health outcomes, there are still many limitations in how healthcare dollars can be used to address these issues. Through better incorporation of the social determinants of health, we will be better positioned to improve not only individual and population health, but also health equity.

 Having experienced the implementation of the ACA, including Medicaid expansion firsthand, I have seen the benefits of improved access to health coverage. I would love to hear Former President Barack Obama’s reflections on the challenges in passing the ACA and what he feels has worked well and what could be improved.

For the first time, Managed Healthcare Executive has selected 10 emerging healthcare industry leaders, working in the areas of pharmacy, health plans, health systems, and technology.

Top 10 Up-and-Coming Industry Leaders in Managed Care 2018

 recognizes the 2018 top 10 emerging leaders in the industry, as selected by our editorial advisory board. These remarkable individuals include leaders who have demonstrated their expertise in areas such as the human genome, opioid risk management, innovative cloud solutions, care management technology, and mental healthcare. They demonstrate the key attributes that define up-and-coming leaders: vision, drive, confidence, resourcefulness, and tenacity. 

Emerging leaders, as represented by this group, are often the product of organizations that actively encourage and develop their capabilities and acknowledge their contributions, as exemplified by the vast number of nominations we received this year.  

There are many different ways to cultivate emerging leaders, but the most successful organizations incorporate these five critical aspects:

While there are a number of analytical assessment tools available to identify prospective leaders, perhaps the best tool is a management team engaged in the identification, formal and informal, of team members demonstrating leadership potential. Once identified, having a process that includes regular updates on how their skills are evolving, offering appropriate training, and establishing meaningful career paths can set a trajectory for growth for these individuals.

One of the most valuable tools for grooming emerging leaders is providing a trusted resource that can be a sounding board for their ideas, provide feedback on how they are approaching projects and issues, and serve as a source of support and encouragement. In the best case, mentors should be drawn from the ranks of upper management and outside of a direct reporting relationship to the candidate.

Putting prospective leaders to the test with opportunities that require creativity, goal setting, resourcefulness, and getting buy-in from various departments within the organization is an important step in determining how successful these individuals will be as leaders. Often, emerging leaders will exceed expectations on these types of opportunities, reinforcing their selection as future leader.

When management positions open up, look first to your pool of emerging leaders. Even better, give them opportunities to build out new products or services and take their skills to whole new level.

Recognition is important but needs to be personalized. Monetary rewards only go so far. Conference participation, appointment to community boards, and nomination to regional and national recognition programs are a few ways to let emerging leaders feel the love.

These individuals are not only the future of their organizations, but even more important, they are the future of our industry. Their importance cannot be overstated.

Healthcare in the U.S. is at a critical point. Rising costs, governmental indecision, aging, sicker populations, high deductibles, and a high level of consumer dissatisfaction create a rich environment for new and disruptive approaches. Savvy organizations understand this environment and are making the investment in finding and developing their next crop of leaders that can lead us all into the future.

While there are different ways that healthcare organizations can nurture emerging leaders, most incorporate these five critical aspects.

Volume 28 Issue 5

How Enterprise Imaging Technology is Changing Healthcare

Top 10 Up-and-Coming Industry Leaders in Managed Care 2018

Five Ways to Cultivate a Rising Healthcare Leader