June 3, 2009 — AccelaRAD, the leading national Software as a Service (SaaS) radiology image management company, debuts at the Society of Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) conference this week a range of innovative features for its Virtual Radiology Network (VRN), making it one of the most flexible, efficient and cost-effective solutions available today.
New at SIIM is a unique PriorsAnytime module that automatically retrieves previous patient images from any pre-configured third party PACS as new patient exams are displayed. Invisibly to the user, the current exam triggers a DICOM query/retrieve to the relevant PACS solution based on a range of user-defined criteria. The module, which can be pre-configured to search by patient name, medical record number, birth date, gender, modality and body part, automatically pushes these exams to the VRN worklist. Radiologists can click on the desired exam for immediate viewing along with current images.
“PriorsAnytime is an efficient and elegant solution to one of the major problems plaguing offsite radiology workflow,” said Willie Tillery, CEO of AccelaRAD. “Without an automated means of retrieving prior exams across locations and various PACS systems, traditionally busy technologists have had to push these exams manually to offsite radiology service providers, if needed.”
Tillery points out that this manual workflow component creates a significant bottleneck in the reading process and leaves room for human error. “Numerous teleradiology groups and other offsite service providers have indicated that this has been one of the most difficult issues in the interpretation process. Now at last, AccelaRAD opens the door to more efficient workflow.”
As a SaaS image management application, the AccelaRAD VRN resides on an offsite server infrastructure at a TIER4 datacenter and downloads exams over the Internet for access by authorized users on any web-enabled PC. It connects offsite imaging service providers, teleradiology groups and multisite imaging facilities with their client sites to enable fast, efficient sharing of images in standard diagnostic quality DICOM format.
“Using this same Internet-based backbone, the VRN can easily communicate with various PACS solutions installed at user or client sites to access prior exams,” Tillery said.
Also introduced to the VRN at SIIM will be a unique Study Upload module that enables instant, on-the-fly transmission of exams from any Internet-enabled PC to AccelaRAD VRN user sites. With no onsite software and a few mouse clicks, the new module will enable a radiology service provider’s clients and others with appropriate permissions to upload diagnostic-quality DICOM exams to the VRN server for access by VRN users. All exams are communicated securely with full data integrity and integrated into the user’s workflow for reading as appropriate.
“AccelaRAD’s Study Upload provides a new level of streamlined, flexible imaging workflow and ushers in a new paradigm in radiology business. The module eliminates the need for a radiology service provider to set up and maintain any software or hardware at an imaging site to facilitate exam communications, making it cost-effective and practical to provide services for numerous small-volume clients,” Tillery said. “Study Upload also will enable providers to sign on new clients more quickly and easily than ever before to more rapidly expand their business.”
To manage this growing workload, service providers can also use AccelaRAD’s powerful worklist functionalities to set up affiliate reading sites that automatically receive these new exams for interpretation and reporting.
Along with this, the powerful new Study Upload module has the potential to eliminate costly and time-consuming communication of imaging exams on CDs.
“Using Study Upload, a hospital, imaging center or other imaging site can allow any medical facility anywhere to transmit their exams for viewing or download in real time — as needed, on-the-fly,” Tillery said. “Not only is this useful for consults and second opinions, but it can make a dramatic difference in patient care, enabling a physician to send images of emergency cases to a hospital while a patient is in transit. The Study Upload module has the potential to open up an important new level of interconnectivity for healthcare around the world.”
Along with these major new additions, AccelaRAD is adding a range of important workflow-enhancing features. For example, a new study-to-study reading feature will enable radiologists to rapidly view a series of exams without returning to their worklist.
“Eliminating several mouse clicks per exam can significantly boost efficiency when you consider how many exams most radiologists read in a day. AccelaRAD’s ongoing focus on thoughtful product upgrades is just one demonstration of our broad-based commitment to meeting our users’ full range of needs.”
For more information: www.accelarad.com
July 26, 2024 
