Interactive Analytics and Business Intelligence Reporting for Informed Decision-making

In radiology departments, leveraging data and actionable knowledge are essential for making strategic clinical, financial and administrative decisions. Big data and advanced analytics can drive informed decisions regarding imaging assets, resource utilization, operational efficiencies, staff education and training, services and support.

Data-driven insights are critical during public health emergencies, including pandemics like COVID-19, to protect the health of staff and patients. Yet, the ability to quickly compile comprehensive data from disparate systems that informs and predicts remains a barrier for many healthcare institutions and departments.

Konica Minolta Healthcare recognized the value of this data to help facilities better manage their department, staff, imaging systems and workflow to reduce downtime and enhance patient satisfaction. It was one of the first companies to capture data analytics on image acquisition systems with the introduction of AeroRemote Insights in 2017 for aggregating data from its premier AeroDR Flat Panel Detectors.

AeroRemote Insights is a cloud-based, business intelligence and analytics solution that delivers detailed information on asset utilization, department efficiency, staff performance, imaging system health and more. Department managers can view data, such as image rejection rates, dose indicators and panel drops, from any computer or mobile device to improve workflow, accuracy and uptime. The newest release is now compatible with Konica Minolta’s X-ray systems driven by Ultra software, greatly expanding the reach of the interactive analytics service to even more imaging departments.

One organization that understands the value of using data to make better decisions is Concentra, a national healthcare company with more than 520 medical centers in 44 states. Approximately 60 percent of these centers utilize equipment from Konica Minolta Healthcare, with more than 100 sites sending data to AeroRemote Insights. 

Sheena Wenz, Concentra’s National Radiology Director, says the solution seamlessly manages data from hundreds of sites so they can make system-wide decisions.

“AeroRemote Insights lets us look at all of our centers as a whole, and provides the data we need to inform our big-picture decisions,” said Wenz.

Previously, Concentra used a manual, time-consuming process that didn’t offer the same visibility into data they now have. “By collecting information at the acquisition device, it’s accurate and reliable, and we can get it to the right department to proactively address concerns,” she said.

That visibility also helps the centers identify training opportunities and equipment needs across sites. “With AeroRemote Insights, we can have conversations around how technologists are performing exams, whether or not there are equipment or technology issues, and if there might be a need for more education,” said Wenz.

Alejandro Gutierrez, Zone Radiology Manager at Concentra, says that seeing all sites at once enables them to address individual needs that keeps each location running smoothly. “With this data, we can shift our focus where it needs to be, such as on asset management for each site,” said Gutierrez.

Wenz and Gutierrez agree that it’s often difficult to manually capture data at their fast-paced centers. That’s where Konica Minolta’s solution saves Concentra immeasurable amounts of time. Instead of spending hours manually collecting data from individual imaging systems and creating static graphs, Gutierrez can spend his time identifying productivity or accuracy issues.

“AeroRemote Insights seamlessly captures the data. This has a domino effect, and we can spend more time on training our techs so they feel more prepared, which turns into higher satisfaction rates for the staff,” said Gutierrez.

This also has benefits for patients. “Automatically capturing the data makes it easier on the staff so they can focus on the patient, providing better care and being more efficient in the delivery of care,” said Wenz.

AeroRemote Insights and Exa Insights, another analytics program developed by Konica Minolta, represent the company’s continuing investment in IoT and machine learning by creating analytic tools that increase the value of conventional hardware and software solutions.

Both solutions offer an array of insightful information that goes beyond one patient or a single point in time. AeroRemote Insights captures data at the acquisition device while Exa Insights integrates information from PACS, RIS and Billing.

“AeroRemote Insights and Exa Insights take complex, real-time data and turns it into easy-to-use analytics that help our customers dive deeper to pull more insights from the data,” said Steven Eisner, Senior Product Manager at Konica Minolta. “The solutions do all the legwork to aggregate this data and then wrap it into configurable dashboards with customizable charts, enabling users to spend less time gathering and analyzing data. Now they can grab the data and easily gather insights.”