Carestream Exhibits Expanded Clinical Collaboration Platform at ECR

At each annual meeting of the European Congress of Radiology (ECR), Carestream (Rochester, NY, USA) never fails to exhibit a new technology or platform in the world of data sharing. This year was no different. The leader in health IT and radiology technology demonstrated its Clinical Collaboration Platform enabling the sharing of images in real time, aiding interactive working, and improving the efficiency of service delivery.

By providing a complete enterprise imaging platform with patient-centered views of clinical imaging data across departments and sites, the Carestream Clinical Collaboration Platform provides every stakeholder with a modular solution for meaningful collaboration across the continuum of care. This is delivered via the solid enterprise viewer part of the platform itself.

Stefano Arata, Carestream Solution Architect for the EMEA region told Medical Imaging International why the development of the Clinical Collaboration Platform was pushing the boundaries of clinical information sharing into new territory.

As a concept, the Clinical Collaboration Platform embodies joint working between physicians, across departments and multiple sites within a healthcare region. It provides an overarching, standards-based platform to manage all imaging data, radiology, videos, photos, electrocardiograms (ECGs) and scanned documents. This is a perfect “enabler” for the electronic medical records (EMR) that is not focused on image sharing.

Carestream has been a leader in radiology imaging for many years, but more recently the field of image exchange in radiology has adopted a position of increasing importance in their portfolio. “We now realize the significance of offering an enterprise imaging platform to enable physicians to collaborate across the clinical pathway across hospitals and medical professionals,” said Arata. “We want to provide access to images that might be captured in different locations enabling all relevant physicians and patients to access these data.”

Of note, the Platform is comprised of a set of modules and an enterprise repository consisting of a standard vendor neutral archive (VNA) incorporated with the ability to integrate with EMR. This is a function that is normally missing from the VNA. “We also provide the workflow because we know how important it is to acquire the images and capture them in such a way that they are properly managed,” he added. The Clinical Collaboration Platform provides all the tools needed to ensure this happens and that images are securely shared with those people who need them.

Furthermore, in the near future, patients will be able to upload their own data, added Arata. He cited the example of patients being able to upload their images and make them available to the hospital before attending appointments. “There’s a high demand for this,” he said.

Also, at ECR, Carestream announced a new development whereby images become available to different stakeholders in real time, providing the possibility for clinicians to share the same images at the same time, for example when holding a remote joint case discussion meeting. “This is very useful for doctors who often wish to discuss cases using images and be able to point to areas of the image in real time with their colleagues,” further explained Arata. “This capability is now embedded in the viewers so that a user can send an invitation to other professionals to view simultaneously.”

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