PACS is powering better workflow in breast imaging, transforming the way breast imaging radiologists read studies and interact with one another by improving physician efficiency, accuracy and saving time. Metrics matter in healthcare today and now excellent efficiency, productivity, quality of care and provider and patient satisfaction are measures of success that belong together in the pursuit of better breast imaging.

Having been in the Sectra PACS fold since 2004, members of the radiology department at six-hospital CoxHealth in Springfield, Mo., didn’t need much convincing to “VNAble” their existing system so it could handle cardiology workflows on top of their own.

Cleveland is yet again blazing new ground in healthcare. This time, myriad health systems are actively collaborating to share images. A first for the U.S., we believe. University Hospitals Health System (UH) is leading the charge that now includes more than two dozen hospitals, providers sites and health systems and counting. Here’s how they did it.

When UC San Diego Health introduced its expanded Comprehensive Breast Health Center this spring, Haydee Ojeda-Fournier, MD, medical director of breast imaging, got right to the point for the press covering the development. She emphasized that the informal reopening had doubled the capacity of an existing program and that the center now houses an integrated suite of numerous advanced-imaging technologies all under one roof.

Learn from three leading healthcare systems that have expanded their image sharing capabilities. Six experts in radiology, enterprise imaging and IT give us a deep dive on how they are integrating multiple facilities, even some competitors and one-offs, saving clinician and IT time and a lot of money too.

With PACS as with any healthcare-specific technology, some universal expectations are common to all end-users and their IT support teams. Yet there are also as many unique sets of preferences as there are PACS stakeholders.

The past several years have seen the development of a de facto stealth campaign against screening mammography. “Vast Study Casts Doubts on Value of Mammograms,” the New York Times bullhorned in 2014. “Why Getting a Mammogram May Cause More Trouble Than It’s Worth,” a Prevention headline blared in 2016. “It’s Time to End Mammograms, Some Experts Say,” trumpeted Time this past December. All of this is fueled, of course, by the never-ending disputes over guidelines issued by numerous authoritative groups.

Hartford HealthCare is Connecticut’s most comprehensive healthcare network. Over the last several years, this community and academic health system has grown significantly through its strategic affiliations with hospitals and a variety of providers.