Image Enable Office
IHE Profile Proposal (Short) Proposed Profile: Image Enabled Office
Domain: Cardiology
The Clinical Problem An increasing number of clinicians have imaging equipment and electronic medical records in their offices. This equipment needs to be integrated into the office environment workflow, and the imaging results need to be seamlessly integrated into the EMR. The workflow and result integration efforts of IHE have to this point been directed towards the in-patient environment. However, there is a critical need for simplified integration in the ambulatory environment.
Key Use Cases A patient is referred to a cardiologist for consultation regarding heart murmur. The cardiologist orders an echo study, which the patient elects to have performed in the cardiologist’s office. The sonographer in the office performs the echo study, and makes preliminary measurements on the ultrasound machine. The images and measurements are sent to a local image server. The cardiologist through his EMR system over-reads (reviews) the images and measurements, and creates a report with findings, selected measurements, and representative images. The report is stored in the EMR, and is also sent to the referring primary care physician.
Standards & Systems Currently Available IHE scheduled workflow profiles for the in-patient environment (SWF, CATH, ECHO, STRESS) IHE XDS, XDS-I, XDR profiles for cross-enterprise medical record sharing
Other Discussion This profile may facilitate compliance with functional certification of EMR’s for the specialty office under the auspices of CCHIT.