Vital

Organizations across the country — even globally — are taking a hard look at their imaging ecosystems and determining it is time for change. Most technology and clinical leaders have read, listened to and observed the imaging vendor narrative over the past few years while they focused primarily on deploying the electronic health records (HER). Now most feel comfortable enough — either internally or with the help of consultants — to tackle this next huge patient record initiative. Vendor neutral archives (VNA), viewers, workflow, analytics, integration and exchange are all under review as components of the enterprise imaging effort. The good news for those in this phase of discovery and analysis is that the pioneers are far enough down the path to prove that an enterprise approach can be incredibly successful and that there are organizational, clinical, technical and even financial benefits to adopting this model.  

King Edward VII’s Hospital in London, U.K., announced a new partnership with advanced imaging and informatics company Vital Images Inc. (Vital), based in Minneapolis, Minn., U.S.A.

Vital Images Inc. recently announced the support of Nuance PowerScribe 360 Reporting and PenRad PenLung Lung Screening Management system in its comprehensive Lung Screening solution. The Vitrea CT Lung Analysis application helps clinicians standardize the diagnosis of lung nodules, while the solution’s workflow system facilitates management of lung screening treatment plans.

Vital Images Inc. announced the launch of the latest addition to its enterprise clinical data suite ­— the application neutral architecture (ANA) platform. This next-generation approach focuses on customer-centered vendor interoperability, rather than creating additional silos of large data prevalent in the “big bang” vendor neutral archive (VNA) realm. The company launched its ANA at the annual meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM), June 29 – July 1 in Portland, Ore.

The trend toward consolidation in the healthcare industry continues to climb, with U.S. hospital mergers and acquisitions at their highest since 1999.