Michigan Health Connect, a statewide health information exchange (HIE), has announced it will deliver diagnostic-quality images to its member provider organizations.
These images will be shared through a product from the Rochester, NY-based eHealth Technologies. The product, eHealth Connect Image Exchange, allows members to view and collaborate in real-time on X-rays, CT and MR scans, ultrasound studies and ECGs.
“Now our participating providers have the ability to access diagnostic quality medical images with a single click from the context of their everyday workflow,” Doug Dietzman, executive director, Michigan Health Connect, said in a statement. “In addition, this platform makes it easy for hospitals and other diagnostic centers to make their images available securely anywhere across the state without sending them to MHC or moving them from where they are stored today inside the enterprise.”
Michigan Health Connect has been a leading HIE in other areas as well. Recently, it announced collaboration between itself and the Great Lakes Health Information Exchange, another large HIE in the state of Michigan. Also, Michigan Health Connect has partnered with Michiana Health Information Network (MHIN) in Indiana, to transmit data across state lines.
Other HIEs, in Indiana and Maine, have begun to share images across an HIE. However, the practice is not common, as doing so presents storage challenges.