Reporting Whitepaper

The optimistic goal of the whitepaper is to:

• Describe the “problem” and related details
• Break it down into component pieces
• Document some technologies that could improve things
• Propose some steps forward for coming years, including:
  • New IHE Profiles
  • IHE Profiles to be modified
  • IHE Profiles to be retired

The plan is to facilitate discussion with other IHE Domains and hopefully reach some cross-Domain consensus so we are moving in compatible directions.

Since this whitepaper is a contribution of IHE Radiology to the IHE Reporting Taskforce, the focus and viewpoint may reflect its origins. Contributions from other Domains to fill in blind-spots and balance the viewpoint are welcome.

Whitepaper Structure

Section 1 presents working premises. That way if there is disagreement about the thinking/biases that underlie the whitepaper, they can be challenged and discussed directly.

As a first step toward consensus on the nature of the problem:

Section 2 tries to nail down the Report itself (content)

Section 3 examines the Reporting Process (workflow/dataflow).

Section 4 describes individual technical issues which will need to be addressed.

Section 5 presents and evaluates

• promising formats for encoding the data;
• promising mechanisms for transporting the encoded data from place to place; and
• promising mechanisms for managing the workflow that surrounds the creation, manipulation and transportation of the data.

Section 6 introduces several different (Radiology) reporting environments, and describes how the technologies would be applied to their workflow/architecture. The current “state of the art” may also be described to present a better picture of user expectations and current problems.

Section 6.1 A Radiology Department (i.e. Hospital)

Section 6.2 An Imaging Center

Section 6.3 A Reporting Service (e.g. Nighthawk)

Section 7 proposes activities to implement/deploy the conclusions above.