On Dec. 2, 2019, Carequality presented the revised Carequality Image Exchange Implementation Guide Supplement, jointly developed by Carequality and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), at the RSNA 2019 Annual Meeting. Leadership from Carequality, Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), American College of Radiology (ACR), and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) addressed the meeting, highlighting the need for ubiquitous exchange of Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) imaging exams. Representatives from early adopters of the guide, Ambra Health, LifeImage and Philips voiced their support and discussed plans to become implementers of the Carequality Framework in 2020.
As we know, imaging data poses different challenges and is managed using different tools and different standards than clinical document data. But imaging’s place as one of the highest-value pieces of clinical information underlines the importance of image data exchange. Caregivers and patients are impacted by the lack of access to medical imaging in the US today. Expanded standards-based exchange of medical imaging will enable innovation and improvements that benefit clinicians and patients. The guide published in December addresses the capability to exchange DICOM imaging exams. It was refined and enhanced by the numerous public comments received from the medical imaging and Carequality communities.
Carequality prides its transparency and engaging with the public and its communities. We are therefore sharing the public comment disposition that brought changes to the Carequality Imaging Data Exchange Implementation Guide. We are posting our responses to the 75 comments we received (from seven organizations) and grouping these by category, highlighting which comments were applied to the Guide and which comments will be discussed with the early adopter implementers to determine if additional clarity is required.
READ PUBLIC COMMENT DISPOSITION HERE
Carequality was thrilled to receive these comments, which helped us to deliver on our promise to help with the #DitchTheDisk efforts supported by RSNA and the ACR. We want our health communities to know that their involvement and expertise is critical to our growth. Carequality implementers continue to exchange 90+ million documents per month. We look forward to the time when the image exchange use case will result in exchange of even greater scale.
To learn more about how you can get involved, contact us at imaging@carequality.org.
Read more about the release of the revised Carequality Imaging Data Exchange Implementation Guide here.