Recent advances in information technology and process reengineering hold the promise of improving both the efficiency and throughput of medical organizations as well as reducing the potential for medical errors. This research project will look at the effectiveness of mobile computing technology in facilitating radiology and emergency department (ED) communication with the intended goal of improving the quality of the emergency department patient care. This project will examine radiology department workflow to determine what digital alternatives might act as more efficient replacements of the traditional paper and phone-based notification systems. The project will proceed in four stages. The first is the implementation of a system of timely notification for radiologists of the arrival of urgent ED radiology exams. In the second stage development of a system to capture the preliminary note and transmit it to the requesting ED physician associated with that exam will be developed. Expanding on the previous stages, the third stage will consist of building a mechanism for flagging a mismatch in findings between the final radiology report and the preliminary note, and subsequently notifying the ED. The fourth and final stage involves the development of a PDA based radiology order entry system to permit ED physicians to place orders at the point of care. The appropriateness of specific mobile computing solutions in facilitating communication between the ED and Radiology Department will be evaluated. A successful solution will need to be flexible enough to allow a physician to be mobile and still remain connected, as well support bi-directional communication. Due to the nature of the system deployment this study will have a pre/post study design. Metrics for comparison will be gathered from existing clinical information systems as well as through the applications built for the project.
| Tellis, Wyatt M; Andriole, Katherine P (2005) Integrating multiple clinical information systems using the Java message service framework to enable the delivery of urgent exam results at the point of care. J Digit Imaging 18:316-25 |
