Coalition reiterates call for CPOE, CDS in imaging

Just as electronic prescribing benefits from automatic interaction checks and medical databases help guide physicians to the most appropriate lab orders, imaging orders should have clinical decision support, too, a group of physician professional organizations and IT vendors say.

At last week's Radiological Society of North America conference in Chicago, members of the Imaging e-Ordering Coalition said that real-time clinical decision support is far superior to radiology benefits management as a means of ensuring that the right patient gets the right test at the right time. They also touted early success in lobbying the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, CMS and congressional committees working on health reform legislation. Of note, they were able to convince lawmakers to remove radiology benefits management, something they said was an ineffective manual process favored only by insurance companies, from legislative proposals.

"It's difficult to administer, and there's no appeals process," said Elisabeth Quam, executive director of the Center for Diagnostic Imaging's Quality Institute, according to Healthcare IT News. "There's no policy. It's just, 'Captain, may I?'"

But electronic order entry with real-time CDS can help assure appropriate utilization, other speakers said.

The Imaging e-Ordering Coalition, which expanded last week, now includes the American College of Radiology, the Center for Diagnostic Imaging, the Connecticut State Medical Society-IPA, GE Healthcare, Insight Imaging, lifeIMAGE, MedCurrent, Medicalis, Merge Healthcare, Nuance Communications and SCI Solutions.

For more information:
- take a look at this Healthcare IT News story
- read this Imaging e-Ordering Coalition press release

Related Articles:
Group wants new incentives for e-ordering imaging
SPOTLIGHT: Group promotes decision-support tech to screen imaging for appropriateness

Post a comment