Canadians Now Benefit From Radiology Quality Monitored in Real-Time

TORONTO, Nov. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Integrated Department of Diagnostic Services at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH) are the first in Canada to successfully deploy a radiology peer review and quality assurance platform that works in real-time.  In this city-wide implementation, four hospitals went live on October 7^th with the first ever, cross-institutional, cross-system, prospective peer review platform. Unlike legacy systems, the new software platform is capable of helping physicians catch mistakes before a patient's diagnostic report is finalized. 

Last year, HHS and SJHH elected to pilot Real Time Medical's context-aware, workflow management and quality assurance software platform, DiaShare™ QUALITY, to address the shortcomings they identified with their legacy quality assurance solution.  Historically, peer review systems have been primarily retrospective and sometimes took months after a diagnosis had been rendered. This could be too late to make a difference for the patient affected.  In addition, such systems have typically had no ability to span hospitals with different systems, thereby limiting the pool of peers and extent of peer review that could be conducted. In contrast, the participating hospitals with DiaShare are able to monitor the quality of radiology diagnostic reports in real-time – before reports are finalized and results provided to the patient.  

DiaShare also addresses objectivity deficiencies of legacy QA solutions by matching radiologists of similar specialties while preserving the anonymity of the participants.  The solution allows participating physicians to customize their peer review feedback to areas of greatest concern with an automated sampling of exams configurable right down to the exam type per user.  "The pilot that we've undertaken with Real Time Medical is a real game changer around the quality and safety agenda.  It's a solution which is integrated, prospective and workflow driven. Our experience with other systems we've used in the past is that they are static and retrospective," states David Wormald, Integrated Assistant VP for Diagnostic Services at HHS and SJHH.

Ian Maynard, CEO and Co-Founder of Real Time Medical, states: "this is the first successful cross-system, prospective peer review implementation in North America and Europe that we are aware of."      

"Real Time's DiaShare solution is capable of quickly spanning institutions with different systems" explains Babette MacRae, Director of Global Projects and Technology for Real Time Medical. While planning for the project was initiated last year, the actual implementation was completed within months. This is a significantly short timeline considering the four hospital sites used two different Radiology Information Systems (RIS's) and two distinct radiology Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS): two GE PACS, a Meditech RIS, and a McKesson RIS. 

David Wormald, describes DiaShare as: "a solution which we believe will hold a lot of benefit from a regional perspective across our Local Health Integration Network, but is also scalable… it could be a pan-Canadian solution. "

About Hamilton Health Sciences

HHS is a family of seven unique hospitals, a cancer centre and an urgent care centre, serving more than 2.3 million residents of Hamilton and central west Ontario, Canada. HHS is the second largest hospital group in Ontario.  As an academic teaching hospital with more than 1,100 beds and an affiliation with McMaster University and Mohawk College, HHS is committed to providing exemplary health care while advancing excellence in education and health research. The organization's exceptional track record of inquiry and innovation has earned Hamilton Health Sciences recognition as one of the world's leading health science research organizations. www.hamiltonhealthsciences.ca

About St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton

SJHH is an acute care, teaching and research hospital affiliated with the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University and Mohawk College. It consists of three Campuses: the Charlton Campus in downtown Hamilton, the King Campus in the east end of Hamilton, and the West 5th Campus on the West Mountain. For over 121 years, SJHH has cared for the community in a spirit of compassion, innovation, and commitment. www.stjoes.ca.

About Real Time Medical

Real Time Medical is a diagnostic imaging workflow innovation company. It develops vendor-neutral, context-aware workflow management software solutions. These solutions organize the reporting services in complex diagnostic imaging organizations more efficiently and productively. Real Time Medical's platforms improve the quality and accuracy of service delivery to patients.

Real Time Medical also operates the only nationwide, round-the-clock radiology service in Canada, using its own context-aware workflow management software solutions. www.realtimemedical.com

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Video with caption: "David Wormald – Integrated Assistant VP for Diagnostic Services at Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton – speaks about radiology quality monitored in real-time verses legacy solutions. Prospective peer review provides feedback in time to make a difference to patients. Real Time Medical's DiaShare™ QUALITY software platform addresses issues with legacy QA solutions." Video available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k91nK2L2JLY 

SOURCE Real Time Medical