Measuring the Benefits of a Regional Imaging Environment

The use of central diagnostic imaging repositories (DIRs), that allow separate organizations with disparate PACS systems to seamlessly share patient data, is becoming more common; and as a result, the documentation of measurable benefits is a key deliverable to all stakeholders. Central DIRs and the implementation of foreign exam management (FEM) provide clinical users with the ability to seamlessly access DI exams and reports that originate from an outside location. FEM has been implemented to varying degrees across regional DIRs within Canada [1]. Historically, measuring the benefits of transitioning from a film-based environment to a PACS environment has been documented as being difficult and poses challenges [2]. Many of these same challenges are exacerbated when trying to measure benefits across a regional DIR. From the DIR, it is easy to report on the overall number of foreign exams that were transferred from the DIR to each individual site. While this metric does provide some insight into the number of patients migrating between hospitals and clinics, and demonstrates a growth pattern of the ingestion of foreign exams, it does not provide insight into the use and value of these foreign exams to the clinical user. At the outset, we hypothesized that quantifiable benefits could be measured, but would likely yield understated measurable results, due to the complexities involved in gathering data. In spite of this challenge, with targeted analysis across the region, together with many qualitative results from clinical users, a compelling picture would emerge.