BOSTON, Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AMICAS, Inc. , a leader in radiology and medical image and information management solutions, has debuted RadStream(TM), a new product designed to revolutionize radiology workflow. RadStream will be on display at the 2006 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting from November 26th through December 1st, 2006, in Chicago, Illinois.
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RadStream was initially developed at Cincinnati Children's Hospital to solve real world problems in a complex radiology environment. Even with comprehensive RIS and PACS deployment, Cincinnati Children's Hospital saw room for dramatic improvement in their radiology operation. In April 2006, AMICAS acquired the rights to RadStream and in collaboration with Cincinnati Children's Hospital began building a new RadStream with the core functionality of AMICAS' Real Time Worklist, AMICAS Vision Link integration engine and RadStream's patent pending functionality.
"RadStream solves issues that were never considered by PACS or RIS technology. It has improved our radiology report turnaround by 40%," noted Mark Halsted, M.D., associate professor of radiology and chief of the Radiology Informatics Research Core at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. "Using RadStream, radiologists reading cases have experienced a nearly 25% reduction in interruptions."
RadStream is designed to meet three key challenges in modern digital radiology:
Integration of disparate RIS and PACS environments: RadStream automates
workflow and communication through the entire radiology experience.
Utilizing AMICAS' proven integration capabilities and new desktop PACS
integration engine, RadStream is designed to provide a single enterprise
worklist to integrate disparate PACS environments. With the widespread
adoption of PACS, many radiologists find themselves reading on multiple
PACS systems. RadStream is designed to integrate those disparate
environments with a single unified worklist.
Boost radiologist softcopy reading: RadStream includes a patent pending
Acuity Index which utilizes a multi-factorial algorithm that prioritizes
imaging exams based on a "most likely to interrupt" method that was fully
tested and validated by the Cincinnati School of Business. The
fundamental problem with all PACS systems is that they manage cases on a
first-come, first-served basis. "There is simply no accounting for the
severity of a case other than a simple 'yes/no' to 'STAT' concept.
Optimal patient care is not first-come-first-served. In particular, in
busy departments or for decentralized radiology, practices optimizing
workflow is mission critical because it affects the quality of patient
care," explained Dr. Halstead. The RadStream functionality, as part of the
AMICAS RealTime Worklist, automatically prioritizes the workload for the
radiologist with the most acute cases being read first. "Prioritizing the
most acute cases results in a massive reduction in interruptions to the
radiologist. This dramatically improves radiologist productivity." added
Dr. Halstead.
Automate communication and documentation of positive results: Utilizing
RadStream's patent pending "operator concept" radiologists' communications
with referring physicians is automated without disrupting the workflow of
the radiologist. This simultaneously improves productivity for the
radiologist and reduces medical legal risk associated with communicating
and documenting positive results. "The system streamlines communication
between radiologists and referring physicians so radiologists can
concentrate on interpreting cases accurately and efficiently. RadStream
brokers communication of critical results to referring physicians without
breaking radiologists' workflow. We believe that this improves quality of
care and overall department, group and radiologist productivity." said Dr.
Halsted.
Referring physicians benefit as well. "With RadStream, our referring physicians get consistent, final results quickly communicated to them every time they request a call report or we find a positive result. All such communications are permanently documented giving users the ability to complete comprehensive post case reviews and providing automatic documentation of this critical radiologist responsibility." Dr. Halsted added.
RadStream is fully integrated with the new AMICAS Vision Series PACS 5.0 and the new Vision Reach referring physician tool to deliver an unprecedented combination of image management and workflow technology. RadStream is expected to be available in the second half of 2007.
AMICAS, Vision Series, RadStream, Vision Reach and RealTime Worklist are trademarks or registered trademarks of AMICAS, Inc.
About AMICAS, Inc.
AMICAS, Inc. (http://www.amicas.com/) is a leader in radiology and medical image and information management solutions. The AMICAS(R) Vision Series(TM) products provide a complete, end-to-end solution for imaging centers, ambulatory care facilities, and radiology practices. Acute care and hospital clients are provided a fully-integrated, HIS/RIS-independent PACS, featuring advanced enterprise workflow support and scalable design. Complementing the Vision Series product family is AMICAS Insight(TM) Solutions, a set of client-centered professional and consulting services that assist our customers with a well-planned transition to a digital enterprise.
Safe Harbor Statement
Except for the historical information herein, the matters discussed in this release include forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this release include, without limitation, statements about future product and service performance and implementation. When used in this press release, the words: believes, intends, plans, anticipates, expects, estimates, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially as set forth in AMICAS' most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements in this release are qualified by these cautionary statements and are made only as of the date of this release.
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