How VNA’s Connect the Full Patient Picture

Virtually every clinician, regardless of specialty, relies on imaging to provide care. And while radiology and cardiology continue to generate the lion’s share of imaging, it has become an important part of the care process in dozens of service lines throughout the enterprise. Examples might include a physical therapist who records a video of a patient’s range of motion before and after treatment or a dermatologist who takes a photo of a patient’s skin lesion before a biopsy.

Unfortunately, these specialty departments frequently store images in departmental silos that don’t integrate into the electronic health record (EHR). In addition to increased operational costs and security concerns, a fragmented view of the complete patient picture often results. Think of a “patient puzzle,” with each anatomical piece being scattered throughout the enterprise. If this sounds familiar (and is part of what keeps you up at night), don’t worry—you’re not alone.

Many enterprises are still figuring out how to achieve a comprehensive enterprise imaging strategy, one that supports seamless point-of-care image capture followed by secure content access in the context of the patient record in the EHR. Thankfully, a vendor-neutral archive (VNA) is specifically designed to achieve that goal and is the essential foundation for every organization’s enterprise imaging strategy.

A VNA captures, stores, and distributes every form of multimedia content associated with a patient, regardless of the content’s source or format. The award-winning Synapse^® VNA uses its various Connext Workflow Solutions to unify the full picture of patient health dispersed across the enterprise. Synapse VNA also automatically associates the content with the patient record and makes it available to care providers on any device.

Using specific tool sets, the solutions are designed for the following activities:

Below are a few of Synapse VNA’s Connext Workflow Solutions, and a sneak peek at how they bring together today’s various specialty departments by using standards-based, intelligent workflows:

• Connext Point-of-Care Worklists: Allow point-of-care modalities and imaging applications to retrieve patient demographics for encounter-based procedures.
• Connext Mobile: Mobile app that captures photos, videos, audio recordings, and notes. Launch with patient context directly from the EHR, or select patients from the integrated, department-specific point-of-care worklist. Supports configurable forms for capturing additional notes and observations as well as sensitive and restricted workflows (for VIP patients, abuse victims, graphic content, etc.).
• Connext Web: General-purpose web application to upload any clinical content. Can be launched with patient context directly from the EHR, or users can select patients from the integrated, department-specific point-of-care worklist. Supports the same configurable forms and sensitive and restricted workflows as Connext Mobile.
• HL7^® FHIR^®: RESTful web service to create, read, update, and delete DocumentReference FHIR resources.

HL7 file uploads, DICOM, DICOMweb, and XDS are other VNA connectors that support the various clinical workflows throughout a healthcare enterprise. As healthcare facilities continue to increase imaging volumes, the time is now to start thinking about why an enterprise imaging strategy needs to start with a VNA. Interested in learning more about Synapse VNA’s Connext Workflow Solutions and seeing real-world examples of how they connect the full patient picture from across the enterprise? Check out our Synapse VNA Connext Workflow Solutions eBrochure.