June 28, 2017 — Envision Diagnostic Center (Novi, Mich.) has implemented Exa PACS (picture archiving and communication system) from Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas Inc. to facilitate the sharing of multispecialty medical images and reports while enabling the use of computerized physician order entry (CPOE).
Exa provides the infrastructure and flexibility for Envision Diagnostic, a division of the multispecialty Envision Medical Group with 11 locations, to manage data across the imaging workflow in different ways depending on the source of the imaging order. All Envision physician orders are generated through the organization’s electronic medical record (EMR) solution with reports sent electronically back to it. Non-Envision physician orders are submitted through Exa’s referring physician portal and reports are then faxed back to the provider’s office.
Exa also supports the center’s reading and reporting of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), eliminating the need for a dedicated breast imaging workstation. Additionally, the facility uses Exa for viewing and managing echocardiograms for cardiac imaging via the solution’s diagnostic-quality zero footprint universal viewer. In addition to DICOM studies, the vendor neutral archive (VNA) also stores non-DICOM data such as cardiac and holter monitoring data. Exa is structured to support the addition of new facilities and imaging modalities.
“Exa provides all the capabilities that we need to facilitate electronic sharing of patient data and images with our medical group and referring physicians, which supports our continued growth,” said Michelle DeVries, administrator, Envision Diagnostic Center. “With Exa and the referring physician portal, physicians can easily log in from their remote offices to order imaging studies, which has significantly reduced manual data entry errors. We also have voice recognition to streamline reporting and one solution for reading and archiving all imaging studies, including breast and cardiac.”
According to DeVries, the center purchased a DBT system after installing Exa and was able to avoid the additional expense of a dedicated breast imaging workstation by utilizing the Exa Mammo Universal Viewer with the new imaging system. Through Server-Side Rendering technology, Exa provides quick access to prior exams and large files without the need for prefetching and cyber security with no data transferred to or stored on local workstations.
“We are able to access all studies from any location or workstation with the Exa Universal Viewer, helping enhance efficiency and report turn-around-times so our referring physicians and specialists can deliver the highest quality patient care,” said James Selis, M.D., a diagnostic radiologist at Envision Diagnostic Center. “Since the solution can handle breast imaging and cardiac studies, we have reduced our reliance on dedicated workstations, which lowers our overall costs but as importantly further enhances radiologists’ productivity and reporting.”
For more information: www.konicaminolta.com/medicalusa
April 22, 2024 
