October 4, 2011 – Etiam will debut version 3.20 of its Secure Medical Networking (SMN) system at RSNA 2011. It supports unified film, CD and electronic data transfer and now fully integrates imaging information from beyond the enterprise into existing hospital workflow.
The system provides a comprehensive solution not only to transfer imaging data but also to bring order to the thousands of external images that enter many facilities every day.
New to v. 3.20 is support for bi-directional consultation, enabling practitioners in multiple locations to share over the Internet both imaging data and a broad range of related patient files; this also real-time communication. These files include documents — such as time-sensitive Glascow Coma Scale reports for trauma transfers — as well as non-DICOM still and moving images.
Because information transfer bypasses the cloud, diagnostic-quality images and other files are transmitted at high speed. The most complex images are ready for use within minutes of transmission. Image transfer protocols are specifically optimized according to the available bandwidth.
The SMN upgrade accepts and integrates incoming studies whether in CD, film or electronic format; it also streamlines communication of images within the enterprise.
The system uses customizable, complex rule engines to route patient information to the point-of-care as needed. This ensures, for example, that vital emergency room patient images and Glascow data immediately reach the correct specialist, and oncology second opinions are entered on the appropriate radiologist’s worklists for review at a later date. This contrasts with most image sharing systems that typically handle only electronic data on a point-to-point basis with no support for image management once files enter a facility.
The product now includes four modes for image transfers to meet a facility’s specific collaboration needs:
- Traditional CD and film capture
- Web upload on the fly from any location
- SMN Agent gateway, which provides a secure link between two institutions for efficient and secure communication
- SMN Community Nexus, using a similar secured link between two institutions, with additional features such as customizable image routing
Using many of these transfer modes and the new bi-directional collaboration support, physicians in multiple locations involved in a case can collaborate in real time.
With SMN v. 3.20, external images are immediately reconciled with institution-specific patient identifiers and routed to appropriate specialists; they can also be directed to film libraries or sent to temporary enterprise storage. The system also creates and manages worklists of external images earmarked for permanent storage to picture archiving and communications systems (PACS).
Users can efficiently manage import of relevant studies into PACS, thus saving a lot of human time and resources in the Film Library.
The system relies on the Internet to directly transfer images. For the highest level of security and speed of image transfer, no images are permanently stored on the cloud. Supporting this philosophy, new Web-based bi-directional consultations are conducted in a secure and traceable manner.
For more information: www.etiam.com
April 11, 2024 
