Meaningful use, quality data and clinical decision support to achieve better outcomes are driving trends in the radiology information system (RIS)/picture archiving and communication system (PACS) market, according to a KLAS imaging expert.
From the RIS perspective, larger hospitals want a single vendor that provides both an EMR and a RIS, which is fueling the demand for integration, said Ben Brown, general manager for imaging, informatics and medical equipment for KLAS Enterprises. The integration of EMR and ancillary systems will better enable them to qualify for meaningful use, derive data for quality reporting, deliver clinical decision support for better outcomes and provide the right patient data at the right time within the right context, he said. “The trend really is a single vendor with integrated ancillary systems,” he said.
On the community hospital side, there’s more flexibility toward integrated RIS/PACS options. Many PACS vendors have either acquired or built in-house RIS applications. Most of the hospital information systems, which are focused on community hospitals, don’t have deep tools or functionality for radiology workflow, Brown said.
Between radiologist use of EMRs and RIS/PACS, it appears that close to 90 percent of radiologists should be eligible for the federal incentives either as a professional or through working with a hospital, he said. In response to meaningful use addressing information exchange, PACS vendors are developing tools that enable health information exchange without having to burn a CD. They are also deploying cloud storage and technology to enable the digital sharing of images.
The inpatient PACS market is close to being saturated, Brown said. As larger hospitals get closer to qualifying for the meaningful use of EHRs, they are going back to their PACS vendors and looking to create a long-term, robust enterprise imaging strategy that both will improve quality, patient safety and clinical outcomes while lowering costs over the long term.
As the market reaches saturation, expect providers to demand from the vendor community excellent service, a continually evolving technology platform, integration of speech technology within RIS/PACS to improve clinical documentation and turnaround times, and advancements in visualization tools, business intelligence applications and critical results test management and communications rules, among other things.
Brown also anticipates seeing the archiving PACS piece get co-opted by other departments either through just the PACS archive or vendor-neutral middleware technology.
KLAS has just published its latest inpatient PACS report for larger hospitals and community hospitals, and its Top 20 Best in KLAS, which will include RIS and PACS solutions, will be released mid-December.
