for Epic
Launch and View
External Exams
from Epic
Learn how a simple integration can
make your EHR the source of truth for
all medical images, including those
performed outside your network.
Epic to every medical
Integratedfor
access
imaging study, from within your Epic EHR
ABOUT THE
INTEGRATION
Your institution has invested substantial time and energy in its Epic
implementation. lifeIMAGE helps you increase the value of your EHR by
adding external imaging histories as a clinical element in the patient
record.
KEY CAPABILITIES
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DOB
MRN
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VIEW EXTERNAL EXAMS – From the patient record, Epic users see a list of
the outside studies associated with the patient. With a single click, they can
launch and view individual exams with the lifeIMAGE viewer.
UPLOAD EXAMS FROM CDs – Physicians and support staff can upload new
exams from CDs without leaving Epic.
LINK EXAMS FROM THE CLOUD – Exams received on the lifeIMAGE
network can be linked to the local patient record.
NORMALIZE STUDY DATA – Whether uploaded or linked, exams on
lifeIMAGE are automatically standardized with your facility’s identifiers for
patient name, date of birth, gender and MRN.
ACTIVE IDENTITY CHECK – During upload, a proactive identity check warns
users about data discrepancies – mismatches require user
acknowledgement before exams can be linked.
KEY BENEFITS
PATIENT SATISFACTION – Provides a single, convenient workflow for
accessing both internal and external exams.
PATIENT SAFETY – Ensures every, single member of the care team can
view a patient’s complete imaging history, at any time.
ENTERPRISE ADOPTION – Integrated workflow facilitates onboarding and
training so you can quickly expand utilization to more clinical services
throughout the health system.
PACS
FEWER PACS IMPORTS – The demand for outside exams to be stored in
the PACS is lessened because they are easily viewable through the EHR.
LIGHTER GATEKEEPER WORKLOAD – When exams do need to be
imported, gatekeeper steps are reduced because patient demographics
were corrected at the clinic level.
1.
THE USER
EXPERIENCE
Quickly view outside exams from
the patient record
Our Epic-approved launch interface allows you to configure the EHR to
include a button in the patient record that lists out all the exams in
lifeIMAGE for that particular patient. Users simply click the “Find Exam”
button and lifeIMAGE launches and displays any exams associated with
that patient’s medical record number (MRN). From there, Epic users have
access to the full spectrum of lifeIMAGE functionality for viewing, sharing
and/or nominating exams for import to PACS.
Upload new exams from CD, with
patient context
Using our Epic launch interface, your users can also upload new exams
from CDs without having to leave the EHR. The lifeIMAGE uploader is made
available via a simple button in the patient record. When patients arrive
with outside imaging, front desk staff, or any users with access to the EHR,
just click that button to launch into our upload wizard.
Uploading studies from within the context of a patient’s record is
particularly valuable because it enables the lifeIMAGE system to receive
and use your hospital’s identifiers for the patient – name format, date of
birth, gender and MRN. This ensures the lifeIMAGE database is always in
sync with the EMR, and reduces burden on downstream gatekeepers to
normalize study demographics before an exam can be committed to
the PACS.
lifeIMAGE performs a patient identification check to ensure exams are
being linked to the correct record.
2.
Prevent errors with an identity check
during upload
The lifeIMAGE integration provides a targeted uploading experience that
always reminds users of patient context when uploading. lifeIMAGE also
performs an active identity check during the upload process by comparing
the demographics of the inbound exam with the demographics provided
by Epic. If there is a significant discrepancy, lifeIMAGE will warn the user
that they may be associating an exam to the wrong patient record.
If a user error does occur, the integration also provides the capability to
quickly break the relationship between an exam in lifeIMAGE and the
patient record, and revert its identifiers to those originally on the patient
CD. This functionality is found in the Manage Exams tab.
Link exams received on the lifeIMAGE
network to the EHR
In addition to uploading external exams brought in by patients on CDs, you
can also associate studies received through a clinician’s or departmental
ReferralBox so they are viewable in the EHR.
To link an exam received electronically, a user would go to patient record
in Epic and click on the same button used to launch the lifeIMAGE
uploader. The wizard provides options to “Upload an exam from a CD” or
“Search for an existing exam.” When the latter is selected, lifeIMAGE uses
the patient name, date of birth and gender to conduct a search against the
exams in your lifeIMAGE database that have not yet been associated with
an Epic record. The search parameters can be expanded or narrowed as
needed. The user simply has to select the desired exam or exams from the
results list. Similar to the process of uploading an exam from CD, lifeIMAGE
3.
will compare the patient demographics on the exam with those stored in
Epic and will warn the user if anything is significantly mismatched before
normalizing the exam demographics and associating the study with the
patient record.
Viewing exams for patients who have not
yet been registered
Trauma, ED, stroke and other critical care teams will most likely want to
keep using stand-alone lifeIMAGE workflow to view external exams for
inbound transfer patients because these patients will not be registered at
your facility before the delivery of care must begin. In these situations, it is
most time effective to log into lifeIMAGE directly to upload or view exams.
However, once the patient is formally admitted and assigned an MRN, you
can associate the previously uploaded exam with the new patient record.
From that point forward, it will be easily accessible to all for care and
discharge planning, teaching purposes, and medical-legal reasons.
HOW TO
IMPLEMENT
LIFEIMAGE
A two-step implementation – just
configure and test
Implementing the lifeIMAGE integration for Epic is a straightforward
project. You already have all the software you need installed – you simply
have to do some configuration work to both lifeIMAGE and Epic.
Detailed project information is included in our Epic Integration
Implementation Guide, but here is a quick overview of what needs to be
accomplished:
1. lifeIMAGE Configuration
We need to do some work to configure your lifeIMAGE Local App (LILA) to
accept and respond to incoming calls from Epic.
• Get in touch – If you haven’t already, reach out to your lifeIMAGE
Account Manager (AM) so he or she can facilitate the process of
configuring your LILA for Epic integration. If you aren’t sure who your
AM is, send an email to info@lifeimage.com.
• Provide Configuration Information – As a first step, your AM will
coordinate a call with one of our Implementation Engineers. This
person will ask for a number of details to configure your server. This
information includes:
– Define the external app profile – The Implementation
Engineer will create a profile for Epic as an external application
that is requesting single-sign on access. To do so, they require a
name for the profile, a description and a desired password for
the Epic application.
– Encryption details – The implementation engineer will discuss
your encryption options for securing the launch calls that
originate in Epic. Your options are AES, RC4 or 3DES encryption.
lifeIMAGE will also require an encryption key.
– Set the URL timeout – as an added security feature, the launch
calls from Epic can be configured to time out after a configurable
period of time thus preventing someone from bookmarking or
recreating the launch call and accessing lifeIMAGE in an
unauthorized manner. lifeIMAGE recommends a 5 minute
timeout, however the Implementation Engineer will ask for and
configure any timeout interval that your organization deems
appropriate.
5.
• LILA Test Server Configuration – The initial server configuration
will be done in your lifeIMAGE test environment. This gives you the
opportunity to test and validate the integration as well as a chance
to develop training.
2. Epic Configuration
The first step here is to determine which screens in Epic that you want to
enable with the lifeIMAGE Upload and View buttons..
• Button Configuration – Once you know where in Epic you want to
insert the buttons, contact your Epic project manager or Epic
support (both are fully versed in how to configure for the lifeIMAGE
integration). This configuration will include creating new FDI records
that define the Upload and View buttons in the patient record.
• Epic Test Server Configuration – Similar to lifeIMAGE, the initial
server configuration should be done in your Epic test environment
for validation purposes.
3. Superuser Testing
Once the LILA and Epic test environments are both properly configured,
lifeIMAGE staff will help you to train super users, create documentation
and develop training tools.
4. Configure Production Environments
Once superusers are trained and the documentation is ready to go, the
next step is to configure both the LILA and Epic productions servers and
schedule a go-live.
5. Rollout
Once your organization is ready to go live, lifeIMAGE will help develop
strategies for end-user and departmental training. Once the integration is
rolled out, lifeIMAGE staff will continue to be on hand to ensure a smooth
transition.
LEARN
MORE
Want to know more?
Request a full consultation and demonstration of the lifeIMAGE
integration with the Epic system. Contact your account manager or
schedule online at lifeimage.com/epic.
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