The Situation
Outpatient radiology group SimonMed Imaging, founded in 2002 by radiologist Dr. John Simon, is the largest outpatient physician radiology group in the United States. It currently operates 147 imaging centers in 11 states and acquires over 2 million exams per year. The nationwide imaging practice provides mammograms, MRI, CT, US, Xray, PET and Xray exams to millions of patients. The company’s mission is to make advanced technology affordable and accessible while also offering the most advanced imaging options.
Prior to using Candelis’ ImageGrid, image routing within SimonMed’s facilities was inconsistent and there was limited visibility to see if image routing was successful. SimonMed also had limited capabilities and tools to help with data migration into their current PACS, which was needed as their business expanded.
The Opportunity and Challenge
In August 2022, Candelis installed the virtual version of the ImageGrid Enterprise Router into SimonMed’s virtual machine environment. ImageGrid VM uses the latest advancements in server virtualization technology to enable large healthcare organizations to deploy a full-featured enterprise router within their existing virtualization infrastructure without having to invest in servers and hardware. ImageGrid VM is designed to utilize an expandable set of resources provided by the virtualization infrastructure and offers advanced rule-based and automated study/image routing, pre- and post-fetching and image management.
Candelis' routing capabilities and logging tools provided visibility into the accurate routing of studies and allowed for SimonMed’s IT team to diagnose issues if images were not available for radiologist review. Candelis also provided many built-in tools that help with data migration to help with business expansion, and improved many workflow efficiencies throughout SimonMed.
The Solution
After the ImageGrid VM implementation, legacy patient studies from facilities that SimonMed had acquired were configured to route through the ImageGrid. Routing rules were created on the ImageGrid to normalize the patient images by DICOM tag morphing the external Medical Record Number (MRN) and accession number to become SimonMed’s MRN and accession number for the patient. The ImageGrid then automatically distributes the images to the appropriately assigned destinations. This process allows SimonMed’s most valued resources, their radiologists, the ability to compare the current patient study side by side with the legacy patient study. The process provided by the ImageGrid also saves radiologists reading time and improves the turnaround time for reports to be generated, which leads to improved patient care.
“Due to Candelis' efficiency, we now route everything through Candelis in order to achieve that piece of mind that studies will route as intended. We have implemented end-to-end workflows through Candelis that will enhance existing business partnerships as well as generate new partnerships,” said Michael Nguyen Director of Imaging at SimonMed.
ImageGrid also alerts the SimonMed team when the image transfers are backlogged, so they can investigate and resolve the root cause even before the issue creates delays in patient care. Moreover, ImageGrid provides the ability to create advanced and robust routing. These rules allow the SimonMed team to create complex routing rules to make image transfers automatic instead of relying on manual methods. The ImageGrid also supports HL7, which allows integration with an EMR or RIS, the creation of a modality worklist, or provide information for DICOM tag morphing.
“The ImageGrid VM provides the same robust DICOM routers capabilities that has been available in the Candelis’ ImageGrid appliances for over a decade. Both of these systems are very powerful enterprise routers and can handle complex routing rules with the transfer of several hundred thousand images per day,” said Robert Van Uitert, Candelis Vice President of Marketing.
“Candelis is a user-friendly tool and ready to be deployed right out of the box. You can have it set up and running within hours. As a large imaging practice, I cannot imagine our daily workflow processes without Candelis.” added Nguyen.
The Results
Due to the use of the ImageGrid VM system, SimonMed’s entire healthcare system runs even more effectively and efficiently, so that it can continue to provide the most accurate diagnoses and provide comprehensive medical imaging services with advanced technology.
