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Heart IT and Johns Hopkins Medicine Announce the Award of NIH Grant to Include Images in the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) |
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DURHAM, N.C., Nov. 30, 2011 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Heart IT, the global leader that pioneered the first FDA approved zero footprint medical imaging workstation and Johns Hopkins Medicine, announced today the award of an NIH grant to enable the inclusion of medical images in the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). The Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) is a federal initiative of the National Office of the Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
The NHIN is being developed to provide a secure, nationwide, interoperable health information infrastructure that will connect providers, consumers, and others involved in supporting health and healthcare. This critical part of the national health IT agenda will enable health information to follow the consumer, be available for clinical decision making, and support appropriate use of healthcare information beyond direct patient care so as to improve health.
An ideal use of the NHIN is the inclusion of medical images. According to the Government Accountability Office, 75% of all imaging procedures are performed outside of hospital setting where PACS systems are practically non-existent. Most of the smaller healthcare providers are simply not able to afford a PACS solution. Cost is the number one barrier to adopt health information technology. However, the NHIN requires a PACS system to share medical images. This implies that the majority medical images - 75% of them - will not be available. Therefore, it is clear that a cost effective imaging solution is paramount as it can provide PACS capabilities to those smaller healthcare providers that cannot currently afford it.
Heart IT has developed WebPAX(R), a unique product that offers PACS capability via a "Software-as-a-Service" (SaaS) model through Web 2.0 technologies that allow any internet web browser to function as a medical imaging workstation without the need to install client software. This technology includes zoom/pan, movie controls distance measurements and regions of interest. Heart IT has proposed this technology as a SaaS PACS for smaller healthcare providers in order to enable them to share and access images via the NHIN. To this end, Heart IT received a $2.25 million NIH grant and is collaborating with Johns Hopkins Medicine and its member hospitals to develop a prototype of this technology and demonstrate its value and capabilities within NHIN.
About Heart IT:
Founded in 2000 and headquartered near North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, Heart IT is a global leader in the medical image web enablement field. Their flagship product, WebPAX(R) is the first FDA approved zero foot-print medical image workstation. It provides web-based medical image management technology and services to health care systems, large hospitals and private clinics as well as drug and device companies sponsoring multi-center clinical trials. Worldwide, WebPAX(R) systems currently provide secure web browser access to over one billion medical images. For more information visit our website at www.heartit.com.
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PACS and EMR Integration Takes a Significant Leap Forward |
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Tuesday, 07 September 2010 00:00 |
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After receiving the highest overall performance score for Cardiovascular PACS systems in a recent industry report*, Heart Imaging Technologies is proud to announce a newer, better version of WebPAX. Version 7 takes medical imaging to the next level by providing incredible flexibility for integrating medical images stored on PACS into EMR systems. Using a simple web URL, physicians can click on imaging procedures within an EMR and view the associated images in a standard web browser. Having direct access to medical images within an EMR helps improve efficiency and overall patient care. Durham, NC (PRWEB) September 7, 2010 Traditionally, PACS and EMR systems have been separate, and all too often there are no links between a patient’s medical records stored within an EMR, and a patient’s medical imaging procedures stored on PACS. WebPAX Version 7 has the capability to bridge this gap. “The intent of Version 7 is not only to allow organizations to consolidate multiple PACS into a single system which obviously helps to reduce overall operating costs, but Version 7 also provides an easy method for EMR systems to provide medical image viewing capabilities regardless of DICOM modality or specialty” said Brent Reed, MBA, Vice President of Marketing and Sales. “Direct access from EMR systems to medical images stored on PACS is mission critical, as this is the only way for physicians to understand and obtain a complete patient record. The WebPAX accomplishes this by integrating into external EMR systems via a simple web URL. Now physicians can gain access to the entire patient record from a single location, through a single interface without having to install additional software or view multiple workstations.” “Version 7 includes a web 2.0 rich feature set, allowing users to dynamically interact with medical images in a client-free, standard web browser. We’ve incorporated feature requests from different imaging departments around the world to make this a complete solution for all of the imaging modalities,” said Clint Kawasaki, Director of Software Development. “Without having to use Flash, Java, Active-X or other browser plug-ins, Version 7 exemplifies the use of state-of-the-art web technology to improve upon an already strong, client-free PACS. ” “The leading performance score that WebPAX received in the June 2010 survery results1 was based on physicians reviews who were using our old software.”, said Chad Johnson, Ph.D., Head of WebPAX’s Quality Control Unit. “WebPAX Version 7 is even better, with more integration features, improved communication functions, and enhanced referring physician capabilities. The client-free, zero foot-print aspects of WebPAX Version 7 are key to providing healthcare organizations with the ability to integrate PACS and EMRs.” Heart Imaging Technologies' headquarters are located near North Carolina's Research Triangle Park. HeartIT has been providing client-free, web-based medical image management services and computing systems to regional health care systems, large hospitals and private clinics as well as drug and device companies sponsoring multi-center clinical trials since the company was formed in 2000. Worldwide, HeartIT's systems currently provide secure web browser access to over 250 million medical images. *) http://www.prweb.com/releases/082010-healthcare-PACS/webpax/prweb4432424.htm distributed on August 31, 2010 |
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WebPAX Announces Approval of Key Patent for Web-Based Routing of Medical Images across Multiple Hospitals and within the Cloud |
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Wednesday, 8 June 2011 Heart Imaging Technologies, LLC (the “Company” and dba “WebPAX”) is pleased to announce that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted the Company another key individual patent, further strengthening its patent portfolio relating to zero-footprint technologies necessary to view diagnostic-quality medical images in a standard Internet web browser. The new U.S. Patent Number 7,958,100 covers the use of web browser redirection routing technology to provide efficient and seamless web access to medical images that are stored in different geographic locations. The Company holds three additional U.S. patents and five patent applications pending, all of which underlie the Company’s WebPAX® Medical Image Management Systems, a commercialized and FDA-approved technology that enables viewing and analysis of diagnostic-quality medical images in a bare-bones web browser with full PACS capabilities and that seamlessly integrates into EMRs, EHRs and web-portals. The parent application was filed in 2000. Before allowing the patent USPTO examiners considered thousands of related patents, journal articles, and other publications dating back to 1987, of which 114 were specifically cited. No prior art was found that described how web browser redirection could be used to manage medical images across different hospitals. “When we filed this patent everyone was focused on using desktop applications for viewing medical images within a single hospital. We were the first to describe how to design a system that provides global access to a distributed database of medical images by leveraging the now-ubiquitous World Wide Web framework”, said co-founder Robert M. Judd, Ph.D. The cloud computing revolution is poised to have a major impact on the healthcare IT market, with the most profound disruptive influence in medical imaging, a $170 billion a year market. Despite the DICOM standard, the medical imaging industry is replete with technical fragmentation, inoperability dysfunction and sharing inefficiencies. Consequently, an estimated $30 billion in the U.S. is spent on unnecessary medical imaging, about $15 billion of which is due to redundant procedures that result from a physician’s lack of access to prior imaging exams. The Company’s WebPAX® technology allows the efficient sharing, viewing and analysis of medical images from any DICOM source (modality or PACS), eliminating the time and cost associated with redundant exams, avoiding excessive radiation exposure for patients and obviating the costs and inefficiencies of shuttling around and managing CDs. “Customer demand from hospitals, imaging centers, physician practices, payors and ACOs, combined with the availability of Web 2.0 and cloud computing technologies, will make the days of traditional PACS, one-off viewers and extensive infrastructure associated with image management numbered,” said Dr. Judd. The electronic medical record is intended to serve as the sole integration point of all types of medical data in order to provide a cohesive and comprehensive view of the patient. However, despite the critical importance of medical images to the entire longitudinal medical record, integration of images into the EMR has proved elusive for a variety of technical, territorial, cost and work-flow considerations. As a PACS-vendor neutral and web-based architecture, the WebPAX® platform complements and maximizes the utility of any existing PACS and EMR/EHR investments by providing zero-footprint access to all medical images and videos through a simple web-link (URL) within a third-party EMR/EHR system that automatically points to the images associated with the specific patient imaging procedure which can be viewed with diagnostic quality from any web-connected computer or device. “Whether access to images are made available through the EMR, EHR, web portals, PACS-interface and/or cloud-based delivery models, the difficulty lies in providing immediate web-access to images stored in different hospitals or data centers as images accumulate,” stated Dr. Judd. “Traditional approaches have required that images are copied from one hospital to another before they can be viewed, which is intrinsically slow, cumbersome and expensive. Our proprietary technology provides that functionality with a single mouse click and this method, which is covered by this newly issued patent, is the most efficient technical approach possible within the framework of World Wide Web technologies.” “This patent places the Company in a unique position and provides protection of our core technology as the scaling of medical images across enterprises and/or within the cloud continues to accelerate. This advancement is important because our patented technology eliminates the need to copy images from one hospital to another by automatically routing the physician’s web browser to the hospital where the image is actually stored. As a result, physicians have immediate access to images located at different hospitals or data centers.” As medical imaging moves to the cloud, this patented technology also covers the ability to efficiently provide web browser access to medical images stored in multiple geographic locations, which has important implications for cloud-based and SaaS providers. “Using a single data center to store all images from all hospitals or imaging providers [within a network] is impractical due to the enormous size of medical images. WebPAX’s patented technology enables cloud-based providers to utilize multiple, geographically-dispersed data centers while acting as a single information source from the physician’s perspective. Our newly issued patent protects the use of web browser redirection in this context of seamless controlled web access routing to medical images stored in different geographic locations.” Founded in 2000 and headquartered near North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, WebPAX provides zero-footprint, web-based medical image management technology and services to health care systems, large hospitals and private clinics as well as drug and device companies sponsoring multi-center clinical trials. Worldwide, WebPAX® systems currently provide secure web browser access to over 500 million medical images. |
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WebPAX Receives a Performance Score of 93.4 out of 100* in Cardiology Technology Report |
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WebPAX, the world's first zero foot-print, client-free PACS, has received the highest performance score in a recent survey conducted by KLAS, a leading independent monitor of the quality and customer acceptance of commercially-available healthcare information technology products. (PRWEB) August 31, 2010 -- WebPAX, the world's first zero foot-print, client-free PACS, has received the highest performance score in a recent survey conducted by KLAS, a leading independent monitor of the quality and customer acceptance of commercially-available healthcare information technology products. “We're very excited considering the scores in the KLAS report are based on actual customer interviews,” said Brent Reed, Vice President of Marketing and Sales. “We received an overall score of 93.4%* .” A few comments made by current WebPAX customers which are mentioned in the KLAS report** include: “I honestly cannot remember the last time the system was down. HeartIT's 24/7 service includes remote monitoring of the system, so they might even be catching problems before they happen.” – WebPAX Customer “I like the Web speed. I like that WebPAX is a Web browser and that it is fast. It is the only one we have that really works.” – WebPAX Customer “We love the fact that the system is completely Web based and can be accessed from any computer using a traditional browser. It is extremely user friendly… If people know how to use a Web browser, then they can use this CPACS. Its capabilities are unbelievable. The software is so well thought out, and it costs about a tenth of what other systems cost.” – WebPAX Customer “It's clear that PACS customers demand a highly functional product which will deliver images quickly and easily,” said Clint Kawasaki, Director of Software Development. “However it's also clear that they want exceptional technical support from their PACS vendors should any issues arise.” “WebPAX stands out from PACS offered by other vendors, simply because we focus on the entire user experience. From users accessing images, to their interaction with our responsive technical support team, we want to ensure our customers are completely satisfied at every level,” said Brent Reed, Vice President of Marketing and Sales. “We look forward to maintaining positive relationships with our customers, and believe we'll continue to receive outstanding reviews based on the exemplary service we provide.” WebPAX has provided zero foot-print, web-based medical image management services for regional health care systems, large hospitals, private clinics as well as drug and device companies sponsoring multi-center clinical trials for over a decade. Worldwide, WebPAX systems currently provide secure web browser access to over 250 million medical images. **“Cardiology IT: Has the Industry Missed a Beat?”, June 2010. KLAS Enterprises, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Products marked with an asterisk (*) do not meet the minimum KLAS Konfidence levels. www.KLASresearch.com |
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