Living in a digital era comes with limitless possibilities and societal advancements. Perhaps one of the most exciting developments, the thing that has the potential to transform the way we live the most, is the evolution of the healthcare industry. Imagine retrieving old X-Rays and diagnostic images at the touch of a button on your smartphone? Through the digitisation of the medical industry, healthcare productivity and the patient experience has never been better.
The Australian Healthcare Week 2017 Expo was on display in March, and we could not be more thrilled to tell you about how Fuji Xerox Printers and IT Systems Integration leader Storata Digital Solutions are collaborating to help revolutionise the future of our healthcare industry. As new models of care and advances in technology disrupt Australian healthcare at a pace never witnessed before, healthcare providers are actively seeking out solutions to the challenges they face. How do we plan on meeting this need? By combining affordable filmless imaging, efficient radiology workflow and digital cloud-based solutions.
Today, more than ever, the healthcare industry is reaping the benefits of advances in diagnostic medical imaging. Dramatic breakthroughs in higher resolution CT, MRI, Ultrasound and interventional technologies have enabled healthcare providers to deliver more informed diagnoses, pursue more effective treatments, collaborate more easily with colleagues and communicate more clearly with patients. By joining forces with Storata, we are creating opportunities to help digitise healthcare in a period where imaging centres are seeking ways to reduce costs in the face of axed government rebates and most importantly, improve their patient experience. This incredible partnership is going to allow imaging centres greater access to technology that will provide them the resources to print diagnostic images in high-resolution colour to paper – rather than film. It will also allow image centres to securely share DICOM images with patients’ referring doctors and provide the patient with on-demand mobile access. The timing could not be more perfect, considering Healthcare Week 2017 focused on Digital Healthcare, Electronic Medical Records as well as adaptive and collaborative solutions of the future.
Digital healthcare saves costs and boosts productivity
Perhaps this may come as a surprise, but the healthcare system today still relies on hard copy film for communication between patients and their doctors. Through digitising healthcare, instead of relying on costly film, diagnostic images (e.g. X-Rays, CT scans, MRIs) and other medical images can be printed straight onto paper with near diagnostic quality. The biggest benefit of this technology is the cost saving benefits. Imaging centres can save up to 80% with filmless printing while also integrating the digital images with other aspects of their workflow. Another incredible thing about filmless printing is that colour prints can be printed with the imaging centre’s logo on the header and footer allowing greater branding and marketing.
Digital healthcare improves the patient experience
In the healthcare industry, the patient experience is of paramount importance. With digital healthcare, the days of keeping and storing old hardcopy medical images are in decline. We bet there have been countless times you’ve needed to find an old X-Ray but misplaced it. It’s so easy to do.
With the development of new technologies, patients now expect a different kind of experience from the healthcare industry – and diagnostic imaging is no different. Digitally printing diagnostic images is a huge advancement in healthcare. It allows patients to have immediate, high resolution, paper-based colour prints that can be taken to their referring doctor. An added bonus is that the images can be digitally shared and integrated with other doctors’ systems, which provides access to an entire range of diagnostic tools right on a doctors’ computer.
Furthermore, the paper prints can be folded, annotated and mailed, while the images can be uploaded and securely accessed in the Cloud through the patient portal. This makes it so much easier to save and retrieve old images and reports for future consultations. The Cloud integration also allows images to be accessed from a smartphone or tablet, providing patients with online access to their diagnostic images through a patient portal.
The future of digital healthcare
For Fuji Xerox Printers, partnering with Storata Digital Solutions is a new and game-changing opportunity for medical professionals to leverage digital solutions. As Fuji Xerox Printers’ General Manager of Channel for Asia Pacific, David Borg, said, “Teaming up with Storata is a natural progression for Fuji Xerox Printers; with our focus on providing customer solutions, we are now able to incorporate Storata’s industry expertise in making IT solutions accessible to small and large business.” He also said, “Our focus is always on the customer who wants to save money, increase productivity and efficiency and offer new value, this translates easily into Healthcare at a time when digital solutions offer new opportunities.”
Fuji Xerox Printers is constantly striving to deliver innovative and technologically advanced solutions, and partnering with Storata is just another way of revolutionising the future. Through our collaboration, we will be providing healthcare professionals with efficient, cost-effective solutions that will unequivocally boost productivity and improve the overall patient experience.
Director of Storata Digital Solutions Adam Fudeh said the combination of Storata’s DICOM workflow and Fuji Xerox Printers hardware effectively replaces the old, dry DICOM film printers for most modalities. He said, “With a growing and ageing population, coupled with data growing at an exponential rate, today’s radiographers and sonographers are challenged to keep up with the sheer volume of imaging requests to deliver timely and accurate reporting to the referring physician. By introducing end to end web based productivity tools from Cloud PACS, DICOM Viewers, Patient Portals and DICOM Printing for imaging centres, the suite of Storata Digital Solutions is guaranteed to save them time and money.”
Today, Radiologists conduct their diagnosis on high resolution, DICOM Part-14 compliant monitors driven by sophisticated GPU’s and software. This surpasses any clinical diagnosis performed on film, thus much like the digital revolution in cameras (which saw juggernauts such as Kodak file for Chapter 11) digital is transforming the new age of Radiology.
It’s true that paper hard copies of medical images are the most effective and easiest way for patients to communicate and transfer data with their doctors. The solution provided by Fuji Xerox Printers and Storata maintains the communications channel yet in a faster, more intelligible, more effective and cheaper manner.
For more information about the partnership, you can read our press release here.
