Efficient Storing and Sharing of Imaging Scans

Powerful Patient, 2010 Week 33

Host: Joyce Graff, http://powerfulpatient.org, editor@vhl.org 800-767-4845

Beginning September 1, 2010 Listen Program guide for this show

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Have you ever had to get a copy of your scans to send to another doctor for a second opinion? Sometimes the second doctor simply asks for another set of expensive scans because it's too much bother to get the existing ones. Joyce talks with Amy Vreeland of LifeIMAGE about their new product that aims to avoid duplicate exams and eliminate unnecessary patient exposure to excessive radiation. This is important news as duplicate scanning of patients can also lead to patient discomfort and higher health care costs. Already adopted by three large cancer centers, this kind of "cloud computing" product has benefit for patients and for the bottom line.

About our Guest

Amy Vreeland Senior Vice President, Product Management
Amy, a lifeIMAGE co-founder, guides the design of the lifeIMAGE service and ensures all aspects of the product meet workflow and usability standards.

Before lifeIMAGE Amy was responsible for all AMICAS installation, support, and training resources and helped the company to receive the industry's prestigious ‘Best in KLAS' distinction three consecutive years. She has been an early member of three successful healthcare information technology start-ups and was an early employee at MEDITECH, a global leader in the health care information systems industry.

A company that is changing the way some health care providers share diagnostic images

lifeIMAGE provides an Internet service for universal e-sharing of diagnostic imaging information. The service is designed to connect hospitals, radiology groups, and physicians, to their patients everywhere. lifeIMAGE makes it possible to securely deliver or receive patient imaging information wherever needed from wherever the information originates. The goal of the lifeIMAGE platform is to help avoid duplicate exams and eliminate unnecessary patient exposure to excessive radiation. In an era of concerns about rising healthcare costs, lifeIMAGE is investing in a platform that helps advance patient care, while reducing $10 to $15 billion of unnecessary costs.

lifeIMAGE expands access to patients’ medical histories beyond the radiology department through its cloud-based diagnostic image e-sharing platform, serving complex specialty practices and diverse health care systems. lifeIMAGE allows patients, physicians and hospitals to electronically collect, share and view diagnostic imaging records from any facility, which solves the issue of CD incompatibility, reducing time and cost associated with redundant exams, and avoiding excessive radiation exposure for patients.

“This is a service we anticipate will help considerably in facilitating both our acute and more routine distance consulting efforts, thereby extending the considerable expertise we have at the UF College of Medicine and within the Shands Healthcare system to help patients throughout Florida,” said Dr. Anthony A. Mancuso, professor and chairman, Department of Radiology, UF College of Medicine and Shands HealthCare.

“Access to images is a growing – and critical – part of the healthcare system. lifeIMAGE is taking the initiative to provide this access for any number of clinical uses across all image-intensive specialties,” said Hamid Tabatabaie, president and chief executive officer, lifeIMAGE. “Shands HealthCare, Sarasota Memorial, Baystate Medical and Cook Children’s all share a dedication to quality care and serve as major referral centers, performing an incredible number of annual image exams. These new relationships demonstrate the expansion of lifeIMAGE’s clinically valuable network for sharing critical imaging information.”

“The big story behind these new customers is that we’re at the forefront of an emerging market in the healthcare industry and will ultimately change the way healthcare institutions share information. We’re clearly already meeting the needs of radiologists, who have been at the vanguard of technology automation adoption for two decades. At the same time, we’re meeting the growing need for better access to exam records by professionals beyond radiology, across a spectrum of healthcare specialty practices,” said Tabatabaie.

lifeIMAGE customers perform nearly six million imaging exams annually, including 1.5 million for these new customers alone. Eleven of the nation’s ‘Best Hospitals,’ as ranked by U.S. News & World Report’s 2009-2010 survey, have already selected lifeIMAGE.

lifeIMAGE, based in Newton, Mass., which provides an Internet service for universal e-sharing of diagnostic imaging information, has added these organizations to its growing customer list of world-class health care systems:

• Shands (Gainesville, Fla.), a top 50 healthcare system with nine hospitals and 80 practice areas, will use lifeIMAGE initially for neurosurgical referrals. 

• Sarasota Memorial (Sarasota, Fla.), among the largest acute care health systems in Florida and named by Forbes among the top five percent of hospitals in America, will solve its incoming CD issues and expedite cardiology referrals using lifeIMAGE.

• Baystate (Springfield, Mass.), one of Leapfrog Group’s top 45 hospitals in the U.S. for quality and efficiency, a Thomson Reuters Top 100 Cardiovascular Hospital, and a U.S. News & World Report ‘Best Hospital’ for endocrine and diabetes care, is the western campus of Tufts University School of Medicine and has won six Beacon Awards for Critical Care Excellence and is designated a Magnet Hospital for nursing excellence. It will use lifeIMAGE technology to manage incoming CD issues, especially in emergency room trauma cases.

• Cook Children’s (Ft. Worth, Tex.), a magnet facility for pediatric care for Fort Worth and 90 counties in North Central and West Texas, and one of U.S. News & World Report’s ‘Best Children’s Hospitals 2010-2011,’ will use lifeIMAGE to manage incoming CD issues for pediatric referrals and pediatric trauma cases.

For more information visit www.lifeimage.com.