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portal4med: medavis presents new web platform for medical cross-site and cross-enterprise workflows

From referral portal to telemedicine - portal4med combines modular portals in a Web 2.0 platform

portal4med_patient_context_72_rgb_381_small medavis GmbH will present portal4med at MEDICA 2010 in Duesseldorf, its new solution for facilitating communication across multiple locations and areas of specialisation.

It is an innovative platform that combines various medical portals to manage workflow in medical networks. portal4med is based on Web 2.0 technology, and complies with the latest international communication and security standards.

New ways of providing care that rely on the close cooperation between hospitals, healthcare centres, physician networks and medical sevice providers are an integral part of a modern healthcare system. They offer patients a one-stop shop for quick medical services. Close networking between all participants is necessary for interaction to go smoothly.

Joerg Dittrich, CEO of medavis GmbH, says, "The demand for intelligent networking solutions continues to rise. Although there are various isolated solutions from individual companies and portal systems available on the market, there is no comprehensive web platform representing arrange of real-life modular applications. As specialists in workflow optimisation, we close this gap with portal4med."

Communication across institutions, specialisations and countries

portal4med manages communication between participating systems within clinic or physician networks, medical healthcare centres and integrated service providers in multiple locations and on-site IT infrastructures - the only requirement is Internet access. The Web 2.0 platform takes over main functions such as the general patient management system (Master Patient Index), serves as a repository for documents and makes all the data in the electronic cas file available. Close networking and easy access via the web portal will improve interaction between attending physicians, individual treatment steps will become more transparent and processes will be optimised.

The portal4med concept is unique: Users keep and make use of existing functionalities, connect them and fill the gaps with web-based portal4med functions.

Manage messages with gateway4med

A key component of the portal4med platform is gateway4med, which is responsible for transferring messages between the connected systems. It acts as a "translator" between systems that use different standards that cannot communicate directly with each other. The system handles all the well-established and proven communication standards such as HL7, DICOM and BAPI. gateway4med receives, modifies and distributes messages to the recipient systems in the desired format. The entire communication flow takes place via a web interface, so special training is not required and users can view and track it at
any time.

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Now available: medavis integrated speech recognition

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Direct deep integration; the speech recognition function incorporated into medavis RIS optimises processes and saves time

At the 91st German Radiological Congress, medavis presented the direct integration of speech recognition into the medavis RIS workflow. This deep integration enables radiologists to quickly and efficiently produce reports, using speech recognition, in their customary system environment.

Speech recognition technology represents a great aid to radiologists, as it eliminates the time-consuming intermediate steps in the transcription of dictated medical reports. Nevertheless, the speech recognition function in many systems is only loosely coupled to the evaluation process; dictations are recorded in an external application with its own editor, where the spoken words are converted into text and then transferred back.

medavis RIS now offers a fully integrated speech recognition system with many advantages for users. The speech recognition system is controlled from within RIS and all functions are directly integrated into the RIS user interface.

Users can dictate into their familiar report template and see their words converted into output format text in real time.

All integrated data fields, the text output of the text modules used in the dictation and the implementation of speech commands are instantly visible. At the same time, the physician has direct access to all system data, such as the patient’s previous findings, without having to switch between different applications. This makes the operation simpler, corrections and alterations easier and saves valuable time in the preparation of reports, resulting in increased productivity. The speech recognition software used is Nuance’s SpeechMagicTM

System-independent solution for DICOM data import

Smooth and safe reading of patient CDs; medavis DICOM Importer Pro combines depth of function and user-friendliness with seamless system integration

Karlsruhe, 3 November 2009 - Patient CDs are an important tool in the exchange of data between medical institutions. The import of the patient’s previous image data into the local PACS archive provides radiologists with direct access to their patients’ previous examinations, thus avoiding unnecessarily repeated examinations and improving medical care.

The handling of patient CDs is, however, a source of great concern for many physicians. In general, importing the unchanged data at the physician’s PACS workstation does not present a problem, but the operation of the clinic may make it more practical to read the patient’s CDs directly at the reception desk. One risk is that the identification of foreign systems may not be compatible with the software used, making imported images difficult to find or even assigned to another patient by mistake.

medavis fully integrates Nuance speech recognition into the RIS workflow

Deep integration, rather than loosely coupled systems; the speech recognition system integrated into medavis RIS, optimises processes and saves time

Karlsruhe, 29 October 2009 – medavis GmbH, a leading provider of medical information systems will present the medavis RIS with fully integrated speech recognition, using the Nuance SpeechMagicTM software, at MEDICA 2009. The direct integration into the RIS workflow enables radiologists to quickly and efficiently produce reports, via speech recognition technology, in their normal system environment.

Speech recognition technology represents a great aid to radiologists, as it eliminates the time-consuming intermediate steps in the transcription of dictated medical reports. Nevertheless, the speech recognition function in many systems is only loosely coupled to the evaluation process; dictations are recorded in a separate application with its own editor, where the spoken words are converted into text and then transferred back to the RIS.

medavis MPI (Master Person Index)

Integrating patient master data from varying systems

With the “medavis Master Person Index“, medavis provides medical care centres and similar facilities, with the ability to allow their current software systems of diverse types to access a single, uniform Master Person Index.

When a patient arrives, the medical subsystems can send a query to the central MPI server in order to transfer any available data to their own system. Should the MPI server not contain any master data on that particular patient, it can be recorded in the subsystem and forwarded on to the MPI server. The MPI server then functions as a central storage point for the data and can transfer it to other subsystems. Total data security is ensured at every step.

MPI

medavis SMS

Improved service for patients
Missed radiology appointments are an irritation, both for staff who are forced to rearrange their schedules and for patients who have to make a new appointment, possibly even leading to a delay in medical treatment. Help is available, should the patient wish it and registers his or her mobile telephone number, through the medavis SMS service.

New functions in medavis PACS version 4.3

The new version of medavis PACS 4.3 will shortly be available.

medavis PACS 4.3 offers the diagnostic client a range of new functions, as well as new options in creating patient CDs.

A particular feature of the new version is the “Freeze and Continue” function, which enables a report
to be frozen in its current state, saved and retrieved at a later date. This is particularly helpful when an evaluation of findings is interrupted; it is now possible to return to the exact point of interruption and continue working, without any unnecessary delays.

In addition, “Freeze and Continue” also optimises X-ray presentations. Images relevant to the report can be saved during the preparation process and subsequently accessed during the presentation.