Preparing for COVID-19? Think About Virtualizing Your Imaging Release Process.

The below is an open letter from PocketHealth Co-Founder & CEO, Rishi Nayyar:

Hi there,

I’ve been hearing the same concerns from imaging leaders across the country: leading your imaging department’s response to COVID-19 is stressful and all-consuming.

As much as imaging should be avoided, there are still patients undergoing diagnosis or treatment who need your service; many of whom require a copy of their imaging to further their care. If you are still burning CDs, this means a repeat patient visit or an extended stay in your waiting area. 

Amidst calls to practise social distancing, and health officials’ recommendations to avoid non-essential trips to hospitals and clinics, asking patients to physically picking up image CDs is no longer an acceptable practice for imaging teams. 

Unsurprisingly, patients tend to agree. Over the past few weeks alone, we have seen thousands of patients and their physicians across Canada and the United States accessing millions of imaging records virtually on PocketHealth.

 

This unprecedented moment in history has highlighted something that patient advocates have known for over a decade: that patient-controlled & patient-owned health data is a requirement for a fault-resilient healthcare system — not a nice-to-have, and not a marketing tool. 

Luckily, imaging leaders like yourselves are stepping up to solve this problem. We already have dozens of imaging sites across North America scheduled for near-term deployment, all with the goal of virtualizing their imaging release process in response to COVID-19. We expect this number to grow into the hundreds as the weeks pass. These leaders manage world-leading academic health systems, rural hospitals, cardiac care centers, outpatient radiology clinics and everything in-between. No imaging operation, big or small, should be burning a CD right now, period.

In hopes of solving this problem at your imaging practice, I’ve included some notes below:

Zero-CD Workflow: Virtually share any imaging studies from the PACS electronically with patients or external hospitals/clinics/physicians in full diagnostic quality.

Fees: Truly, we want this live asap. We can waive 100% of our typical hospital/clinic fees during this critical 3-month period. Terminate anytime, and let us know if any other accommodations can move this project faster for you.

Proven: We’re deployed in 500+ hospitals/imaging centres across North America. I’ve picked a few examples: University Health Network (a world leading academic health network), St. Michael’s Hospital & Centrelake Imaging & Oncology (leading LA-area imaging group).

Minimal Staff Impact: We can perform the install with approximately 3h of PACS administrator time (remote… of course) and a volunteer to put up signs.

Genuinely, we are trying to help and figure out the best way to solve this problem. The vast majority of imaging sites in the country are still asking patients to come in and pick up CDs during a time when all unnecessary patient visits should be banned. You can change that for your operation overnight. If you need a rapid deployment to shut down all CD-burning, please let us know.

Let’s solve this problem before COVID-19 overwhelms our health system further. Let me know if we can help.

Thanks, stay safe and stay positive.

Rishi Nayyar
Co-Founder & CEO, PocketHealth
[email protected]