How Healthcare IT Leaders Can Improve Patient Care
Transform healthcare IT with data management strategies for enhanced patient care, security, and research
Scott Mallonee, head of business development and Healthtech of LEADTOOLS says IT leaders are undergoing significant change in the healthcare sector. They are shifting from managing technology toward more strategic roles focusing on improving patient outcomes and supporting business goals.
Healthcare IT leaders are managing an influx of patient data across hospital systems as more providers embrace digital transformation. Up-keeping security measures with various integrations and new technology investments takes time and a proactive mindset in anticipating the evolving threat landscape. By establishing an efficient and effective tech stack, IT leaders can streamline their everyday workflows and rest at night, knowing patient data is safe and secure. Implementing security features and safety nets at each step of a PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System) enables IT leaders to focus on more strategic tasks while saving time, increasing security, and maximizing productivity – which ultimately improves patient care.
The Problem: Islands of Data and Data Breaches
Healthcare records contain highly sensitive personal, financial, and medical information, leaving healthcare systems vulnerable to data breaches. This is a growing problem as hacks become more common and data is stored in vulnerable environments. Data collection is critical to comprehensive patient analysis because it helps inform how providers can treat patients. However, the amount of data in hospitals and healthcare facilities has put them at risk for cybersecurity attacks.
The healthcare sector saw roughly 295 breaches affecting over 39 million individuals during just the first half of 2023. In addition to financial and reputational damage, breaches can lead to a disruption in care and the efficiency of internal systems. When multiple sources of data are spread across machinery, healthcare systems, and even doctors, there is a lack of visibility, which can result in major consequences for patients and providers. IT leaders can better advocate for data management by improving the tech stack and pushing for more updated modern systems because it enhances healthcare providers’ health outcomes and data reliability.
One common threat vector is healthcare imaging devices, as many healthcare institutions do not store images securely. This can include everything from ultrasound devices to CT and MRI scanners. These devices typically have internal storage where they store healthcare data locally, thus becoming “islands of data.” But why is this a problem? Because internally stored data is rarely backed up, is not available for viewing from a central location, is susceptible to disk corruption, and is difficult to provide patients with their healthcare data on a CD/DVD. Far too few healthcare institutions prioritize security for stored images, leaving systems exposed to exploitation and IT leaders in a lurch if a breach occurs.
How PACS Systems Help IT Leaders?
Utilizing the universally accepted medical standard called DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) within a PACS system provides IT leaders with a centralized place for all healthcare files to be stored and communicated between different healthcare systems. Additionally, PACS systems ensure patient health information is backed up and allow users to view imaging studies anywhere on the network.
DICOM is the international standard within the healthcare sector to transmit, store, retrieve, print, process, and display medical imaging information. The DICOM Standard allows easy conversion from one imaging platform to another by supporting virtually any imaging or non-imaging medical devices. It allows for exchanging files amongst multiple providers while preserving patient identification within metadata in each file. It also provides interoperability with medical systems, imaging devices, and specialty imaging software and devices.
Healthcare is a highly regulated industry, and with it comes the mandatory requirements for reporting. IT leaders must have accessible information across the healthcare organization to maintain compliance. Healthcare organizations must submit reports to regulatory agencies like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). IT leaders are responsible for compiling these reports by gathering data within their existing systems and ensuring they are accurate and submitted in a timely manner. Only with a highly organized data infrastructure is this possible. When IT leaders have to deal with islands of data across devices and multiple channels, this task can be more challenging and result in financial penalties. With a centralized data management system such as PACS, regulatory reporting is more cohesive, saving IT leaders time and the risk of being out of compliance.
Efficiently supporting DICOM can be very expensive — often requiring multi-millions of dollars to implement and support this technology. Smaller healthcare centers may not have PACS systems in place, leaving the stored data isolated for eternity until the device dies and images are ultimately lost. IT leaders in these smaller communities and healthcare organizations can only work with the available tools. Still, alternative solutions exist, such as open-source, free PACS systems that can run on Windows or Linux servers.
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Accessible Data and Research Breakthroughs
When healthcare IT leaders utilize robust PACS systems, such as MiPACS, it streamlines workflows, making it easier to communicate and manage the data within and outside of hospitals. Updated health records enable patient information to be found faster, leading to more personalized and specific healthcare treatments and diagnoses. The flow of information across multiple systems and channels is more manageable for IT leaders who can locate data and have better visibility into where and how it is being shared. Additionally, a PACS system also increases communication efforts across departments, which can reduce errors and improve the continuity of care.
IT leaders increasingly rely on new technology that stores, analyzes, and summarizes data to help researchers with medical discoveries. With the mainstream adoption of AI and machine learning tools, healthcare research and innovation is experiencing a revolution based on the foundation of data available. IT leaders facilitate and analyze large datasets for researchers who can identify trends and develop new treatments and breakthroughs with early detection of disease progression. Patient data stemming from CT scans, ultrasounds, and X-rays are important for researchers to learn the symptoms of diseases and for healthcare providers to give context to patient demographics and medical history.
Efficient data management and an efficient infrastructure are key to quality patient care. Data management is essential in healthcare providers’ ability to make data-driven decisions based on specific patient information. Analytics can improve clinical outcomes, and IT leaders play a vital role in ensuring the systems they are managing can provide the insights doctors need for patient treatment. This includes the ability of a data system to quickly load test results, medical images, etc., to share patient data across different platforms and maintain efficient care coordination.
As technology becomes more integrated into the healthcare sector, IT leaders can leverage PACS systems to upgrade healthcare infrastructures and implement higher security standards. While transforming data workflows and communications across departments can be a benefit of a unified data management system, the main advantage is better patient outcomes and medical breakthroughs. Data can help optimize hospital resources and create more effective patient care while providing medical professionals with the information needed to make better data-driven decisions for treatment. IT leaders are foundational in the infrastructure and overall influence of how medical care is structured in today’s healthcare systems.
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