Amilcare Gentili MD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Using Autohotkey, it is possible to create a macro to synchronize PACS and HIS, and have HIS display the clinical history of the patient displayed on PACS.

Clinical information provided by referring physicians on radiology requests is often incomplete. When the radiologists need more clinical information than what is provided, they need to review the medical records in the Hospital Information System (HIS). In most cases the patient records in HIS are not available from PACS. Although integrating the two systems is technically possible, as most modern PACS and HIS systems can communicate using HL-7, it is often not easy to do, and requires a deep knowledge of both systems. To solve this problem, we have used an open source program, Autohotkey, to synchronize the HIS client application, with the patient displayed on PACS.  

AutoHotkey is a free, open-source utility for Windows. With it, it is possible to automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. With this program, it is possible to write a macro that can be compiled into a small executable file that can be run from any directory without any need for installation, or registry modification. Using Autohotkey, we have written a simple macro to synchronize HIS with PACS. Radiologists, while working on PACS, at the press of a shortcut key, can activate this macro. The macro checks for the HIS client, if the HIS client is not already running, the macro opens the HIS client, wait for the user to log in directly into the HIS client, once the radiologist is logged in, the macro grabs the hospital number of the current patient from the PACS display window and enters it into the HIS client, simulating the keyboard. This is all done using Windows functions, without the need to know about HL-7 or how the PACS and HIS function.

Using this macro makes looking for the patient history much faster and has increased the frequency with which radiologists review the patient medical records. There are several advantages of this method; it is free, works with PACS and HIS of different manufacturer and does not require complex installations. A limitation of this approach is that works only on Windows based systems.

Gentili, A, Using Open Source Software to Integrate PACS and HIS from Different Manufacturers.  Radiological Society of North America 2008 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, February 18 - February 20, 2008 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2008/6019050.html