Medical Imaging Blog

Cardiology

New Guidelines on PCI Focus on Collaboration

In November 2011, new guidelines for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were issued after a collaborative effort by the American Heart Association (AHA), the American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF), the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), and other medical organizations. (The article is available here.)

James C. Blankenship, MD, vice-chair of the committee that produced the guidelines and director of cardiology at Geisinger Medical Center in Pennsylvania, reported to Cardiovascular Business that the guidelines reflect a concerted effort to write about – and perform – PCI collaboratively.

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Echocardiography Saves Lives in Emergency Rooms

Echocardiography in the ERThe opening sentence of Wikipedia’s “Echocardiography” entry is “Not to be confused with electrocardiography.”

That’s for sure.

Echocardiography is a cardiac ultrasound that produces 2D or, increasingly, 3D real-time images of a heart. Moreover, an echocardiogram can analyze valve function, blood flow in and out of the heart, “communications” between the left and right sides of the heart, and other cardiac functions.

Electrocardiography, on the other hand, measures the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time.

Both procedures are important in modern-day cardiac care, but echocardiography is increasingly being used in emergency rooms to quickly assess patients experiencing some form of cardiac distress.

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Want to Improve Your Cardiology Practice? Try a CVIS

Improve Caridology workflow with a CVISWhy get a cardiovascular information system (CVIS)? Just ask Kerry Hamilton, Operations Manager of Heart and Vascular Care at Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale, Georgia.

“Our laborious process in electrocardiogram (ECG) management resulted in lost ECGs, missed revenue and report turnaround times that could take up to four days,” she writes in a recent Cath Lab Digest article. The source of the problem: paper.

Here is how she describes a paper-laden workflow:

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Recent Advances in Cardiac Medical Imaging

Cardiac Medical ImagingOnward and upward!

A recent article in Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology highlights some of the most exciting advances in medical imaging today

  • Multi-Modality. Medical imaging software increasingly allows cardiologists the ability to rapidly switch from one type of image to another or, in many cases, to see many different types of images simultaneously. The result: Faster workflows, more rapid diagnoses, and better patient care.
  • Faster Hardware and Cloud-Based Software. Both of these significantly reduce wait time while images are uploaded and make image manipulation less cumbersome. Perhaps best of all, they allow smaller healthcare organizations access to high-end advanced visualization tools.
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Cardiovascular Medical Imaging in Decline

Cardiovascular Medical ImagingA recent article by cardio writer Larry Husten confirms what most cardiovascular medical imaging specialists already know: The number of cardiocascular procedures performed in hospitals is going down.

From July 2010 to July 2011, hospital cardiovascular procedures – which include medical imaging procedures – declined 9.37 percent and outpatient procedures declined 6.28, according to a report by Wells Fargo. And this happened during a time when the number of most other medical procedures went up. Moreover, it was a continuation of a steady long-term decline in cardiovascular procedures.

Why the decline? Husten suggests four causes:

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Attention Radiologists: Get Ready for ACOs by Taking the Lead

medical imaging, radiology and ACOsThe very mention of “ACOs” can cause tremors through the medical imaging community, but it’s time for radiologists and other medical imaging professionals to prepare to transition to an ACO care model, said Ascendian Health Care Consulting’s Jef Williams and Shawn McKenzie at the recent AHRA annual meeting.

The Accountable Care Organization or ACO is the creation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) passed in 2010. It’s designed to improve patient care and bring down (or at least control the growth of) medical costs by bringing several types of medical organizations together to meet specific performance targets. Payment will move away from a fee-for-service-based model and toward an outcome-based model, leading physicians and other healthcare professionals to be less “siloed” and more coordinated with other healthcare workers in their efforts to care for patients.

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Note to Medical Imaging Professionals: Play in the Sandbox Together

Medical Imaging, CVIS, PACS, EHRIf cardiologists, radiologists, and other medical imaging professionals don’t play well in the sandbox together, the federal government will make them do so – or perhaps tear up the sandbox and build something of its own devising.

That’s the message of a recent issue of Health Imaging & IT. Ever-advancing technology may have been the bread and butter of medical imaging a decade ago, but now its cooperation.

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Mixed Forecast for Compensation in Cardiology and Medical Imaging Professions

Medical Imaging and Healthcare reimbursementsCommon wisdom holds that specialists – like heart surgeons, ophthalmologists, and medical imaging professionals – are going to bear the brunt of healthcare reform payment redistribution.

No one really knows, however, how PPACA will impact healthcare reimbursement – or, for that matter, if PPACA will even survive.

Recent research reported by HealthImaging.com points in different directions. On the “medical imaging professionals will continue to see good revenues” side:

  • Outpatient medical imaging volume continues to increase
  • Return office visits to outpatient medical imaging clinics is growing steadily
  • Total patient encounters for cardiologists has increased 50 percent in the past 10 years
Continue Reading: Mixed Forecast for Compensation in Cardiology and Medical Imaging Professions

McKesson CVIS and NCDR Solutions

CVIS and the NCDRA recent article in Cath Lab Digest highlights the importance of having a good CVIS.

The National Cardiovascular Data Registry® (NCDR), run by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in cooperation with other cardiovascular associations, is one of the many excellent medical tools made possible by advances in information technology. Participating hospitals and practices send pertinent clinical and demographic data to NCDR, which is then aggregated with similar data from around the country, analyzed, and published quarterly.

Currently, ACC maintains six NCDR registries, although there are plans to add more.

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CVIS and PACS Ending Information Systems Silos

CVIS and PACSA recent article from Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology confirms what we at McKesson have known for a long time: that the goal of cardiovascular information systems (CVIS), also sometimes referred to as cardiology PACS, is to replace disparate software systems with a single solution, enabling medical imaging professionals to be much more efficient while improving care.

In the past, the cardiology department would have disparate systems for cath, echo, ECG management, etc. Cardiologists and other medical imaging professionals had to log into each system separately, and in many cases, information and images that were available in one location (like a hospital) were not available at another (like a clinic). To use technical language, the systems were “siloed.”

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