Interested CIOs, consultants and analysts may contact the writers until Sept. 10.
COVER STORY
Imaging in the Spotlight
The world of diagnostic imaging is in flux as never before, as hospital and health system CIOs and their teams figure out how to react to a shifting landscape, one that includes expanding digital imaging management across not only radiology, but also cardiology, pathology and other specialties; work towards integration between RIS, PACS and the core hospital EMR, and architecting truly enterprise-wide management; all while managing an exploding level of study volume and storage needs.
PART 1: In this part of the cover story package, we will share with our readers three case studies of hospital and health system organizations that are innovating in the imaging management area; those case studies will be drawn from a variety of hospital organizations (academic, multi-hospital system, and small/rural), and will look at different types of innovation. Contact: [email protected]
PART 2: This part of our cover story will provide an overview of the current vendor landscape in PACS and RIS, with insight from CIOs, KLAS researchers, analysts and consultants offering strategic perspectives on which vendors are getting it right and which are failing to move their products forward. Contact: [email protected]
CLINICAL
Clinical: Inside or Out? Clinical Implementation Staffing
Enterprise EMR implementations are long and complicated, usually taking place over the course of a few years. Though vendors offer project management staff to work onsite at the hospital during implementations, some hospitals choose to forego that talent in favor of a consulting firm. Still others rely more on their in-house staff. We’ll take a look at the pros and cons of each approach—vendor, consulting or in-house--and talk to CIOs who have experience with each. We’ll also find out what happens to that staff when the implementation is over — do some CIOs bring them on board? For EMRs implementations, does staffing come down to cost, experience, or a mix of both? Contact: [email protected]
FINANCIAL: Can You Afford to Let Them Fail?
According to guidelines for the HITECH act, meaningful use for hospitals will include exchanging information electronically with physician practices. And though a hospital may be well positioned on meaningful use with its own EMR, its affiliated but independent physician practices may not be. Can hospitals afford to leave it up to the practices—and risk losing stimulus money due to a lack of information exchange? We’ll find out what tools some CIOs are using to support their physician practices demonstrate meaningful use —in an way that doesn’t alienate them. Contact: [email protected]
ADMINISTRATIVE
As hospitals move further in an electronic environment, server reliability is becoming an increasingly critical factor. As such, the onus is on IT leadership to ensure that the vital patient information stored in EMRs and other systems is available to clinicians at all times. In this article, we’ll speak to CIOs to determine the optimal strategy that can ensure 100 percent uptime, and identify what is being done to guarantee that critical applications are never down. We’ll look at what is needed from an infrastructure standpoint, and what types of contingency plans must be put in place. Contact: [email protected]
WIRELESS
In this story, editor Kate Gamble will conduct a one-on-one interview with a hospital CIO who is either planning or involved in a major wireless implementation. Gamble would like to discuss your current plans as well as your overall wireless strategy, focusing also on issues like how wireless is leveraged to improve clinician efficiency, and how the economy is impacting your organization’s plans. Contact: [email protected]
IMAGING
There is no imaging department this month, as the cover story package is focused on the topic.
Policy
The Best of David Raths’ Policy Blog (Contact: [email protected])
