Enterprise Imaging, Informatics Strategy Needed for Digital Transformation

February 23, 2023 - A recent white paper published by Frost & Sullivan and Canon Medical Informatics indicates that scalable, enterprise-level solutions and strategies for imaging and informatics are needed to drive effective digital transformation and care delivery.

According to a press release published alongside the white paper, healthcare digitalization, and medical imaging have seen significant advances in the last few years. But the COVID-19 pandemic underscored various challenges for health systems, including those related to data use, exchange, interoperability, scalability, and accessibility. These stresses on digital transformation strategy, however, catalyzed some investment in the area recently, particularly in terms of enterprise-level imaging and informatics.

"The COVID-19 pandemic provided a glimpse into the enormous potential of digital transformation in healthcare," said Larry Sitka, vice president of Enterprise Applications at Canon Medical Informatics, in the press release. "Healthcare organizations now recognize that enterprise imaging is imperative in care delivery that can not only improve the quality of care and financial performance but also offer improved patient, staff, and provider satisfaction."

The white paper notes that many health systems are currently moving away from individual PACS (picture archiving and communication systems) in favor of enterprise imaging and informatics to improve healthcare delivery. But to effectively make this transition, health systems must prioritize the data found within EHRs and other systems and look toward long-term strategies to leverage that data.

Additionally, health systems must adopt tools that address efficiency and workflows to help enable better decision-making for organizational performance and patient care delivery. The press release states that big data analytics allow for more actionable insights into a patient's well-being and decision support for clinicians, which can lead to improved patient outcomes, speed of service, and diagnostic abilities.

"The right enterprise imaging and informatics strategy has the potential to predict health trends at a population and individual level on a long- and short-term basis, helping clinicians pre-empt adverse health events with preventative medicine, exercise, or nutrition. The innovations are integral to a value-based care model and reduce healthcare costs across the board," said Daniel Ruppar, consulting director, Healthcare and Lifesciences at Frost & Sullivan, in the press release. "The strategy also allows for reconciliation between aspects of workflow, merging the needs of traditional imaging service lines with data- and machine-driven approaches to provide a new way of working and operating in imaging."

However, gaps in purchasing decisions and processes prevent health systems from taking advantage of these approaches and achieving digital transformation.

The white paper notes that enterprise imaging can help drive these efficiencies through vendor-neutral archiving (VNA) technology integrated with pre-existing PACS solutions, which may enable more efficient image data analytics and allow datasets to be effectively migrated in the future. The strategy may also support secure communication and collaboration, allow for the presentation of relevant clinical data via a unified patient view, and improve patient and provider satisfaction and health outcomes.

The white paper highlights one set of approaches to address issues around healthcare digital transformation, but other research highlights additional considerations.

In April, a report by Morning Consult commissioned by Innovaccer found that despite 95 percent of healthcare executives being focused on digital transformation, a lack of data readiness prevents them from making meaningful changes.

The report indicates that interoperability issues, alongside financial and staffing concerns, are a major roadblock for health systems, with 12 percent reporting it’s a primary barrier to innovation. To address this, the report recommends a ‘data readiness first’ approach to help unify disconnected systems and tear down data silos to make healthcare data more complete and actionable.