Developing networks, improving communication, simplifying work - the term "workflow" includes all of this and is playing an increasingly important role in modern healthcare. At the ECR (European Congress of Radiology) in Vienna, Austria, Siemens Healthcare is presenting a whole array of IT services for radiology and its communication within hospitals and with physicians' practices. The new role-based portals syngo Portal Radiologist, syngo Portal Referring Physician and syngo Portal Executive (the latter still in development), support radiologists and hospital personnel with intelligent access to and management of patient images, data or reports. All portals contribute at various levels not only to optimization of workflows, but also provide users with innovative applications relevant to the context of their task. This is supplemented by new applications for computer-aided detection (CAD).
The three portals syngo Portal Radiologist, syngo Portal Referring Physician and syngo Portal Executive are essential components of the workflow innovations. They offer rolebased access to applications and information critical to the daily functions of radiologists and other caregivers.
Syngo Portal Radiologist is intended to help radiologists with their specific tasks: For example, they can use the Check Requests, Read Images, and Sign Reports functions which allow the radiologists to organize their work according to the workflow step. An "integrated" intelligence provides the user with access to the next logical application according to the workflow step he or she is carrying out.
Syngo Portal Referring Physician is also a role-based solution and supports the referring physician in communication with the radiology department. The portal enables physicians to schedule appointments directly from the ward or referring physician's office. Predefined request forms provide the option of recording clinical information beforehand and thus allow radiologists the ability to easily identify contraindications such as metal implants in MR patients.
Syngo Portal Executive is designed especially for executives in hospitals and clinics. They can use this, for example, to simplify the planning of resources in the radiology department, or measure turnaround times for reports. A special advantage: The user interface can be individually customized to fit the requirements of the hospital or the radiology department. This enables proactive decision management and better strategic planning.
Innovation in radiology workflow with syngo Imaging
A revised version of the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) syngo Imaging will also be shown at the ECR. Syngo Imaging supports several independent CAD applications, such as syngo Lung CAD for detecting pulmonary nodules in thorax CT studies and syngo Chest X-ray (CXR) CAD for detecting pulmonary nodules in digital thorax X-ray images. For the first time syngo TrueD, an innovative software application used to interpret multimodal imaging procedures in oncological diagnosis, is also available on the PACS system. These applications provide extensive support in the diagnosis of the examining radiologists, who can analyze and compare the images directly via the PACS.
Oncological diagnosis and follow-up with syngo TrueD
"Read anything from anywhere," states James Busch, M.D., chief executive officer, Specialty Networks L.L.C. and a radiologist with Diagnostic Radiology Consultants (DRC) in Tennessee. "Syngo TrueD is a powerful post-processing application focusing on fusion imaging. The user interface is intuitive which drastically simplifies PETCT interpretation and it's available wherever the radiologist is interpreting images."
The newest version of syngo TrueD supports the oncological workflow in diagnosis, staging, and assessment of cancer treatment response. The application can load and simultaneously display anatomical and functional images from three points in time, for example, from the initial examination and two follow-up exams. This serves to considerably simplify examinations during the course of an illness or treatment.
About Siemens Healthcare
Siemens Healthcare is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry. The company is a renowned medical solutions provider with core competence and innovative strength in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies as well as in knowledge engineering, including information technology and system integration. With its laboratory diagnostics acquisitions, Siemens Healthcare is the first fully integrated diagnostics company, bringing together imaging and lab diagnostics, therapy, and healthcare information technology solutions, supplemented by consulting and support services. Siemens Healthcare delivers solutions across the entire continuum of care from prevention and early detection, to diagnosis, therapy and care. The company employs more than 49,000 people worldwide and operates in 130 countries. In the fiscal year 2007 (Sept. 30), Siemens Healthcare reported sales of 9.85 billion, orders of 10.27 billion, and group profit of 1.32 billion. Further information can be found by visiting http://www.siemens.com/healthcare.