Yousaf Awan MD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Amy Kunce ARRT, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Jewel Fossett BS, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Omer A. Awan MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Joseph Jen-Sho Chen MD, Abstract Co-Author: Advisory Board, Bayer AG

Eliot L. Siegel MD, Abstract Co-Author: Research grant, General Electric Company Speakers Bureau, Siemens AG Board of Directors, Carestream Health, Inc Research Grant, XYBIX Systems, Inc Research Grant, Steelcase, Inc Research Grant, Anthro Corp Research Grant, RedRick Technologies Inc Research Grant, Evolved Technologies Corporation Research Grant, Barco nv Research Grant, Intel Corporation Research Grant, Dell Inc Research Grant, Herman Miller, Inc Research Grant, Virtual Radiology Research Grant, Anatomical Travelogue, Inc Medical Advisory Board, Fovia, Inc Medical Advisory Board, Vital Images Medical Advisory Board, McKesson Corporation Medical Advisory Board, Carestream Health, Inc Medical Advisory Board, Bayer AG Research, TeraRecon, Inc Medical Advisory Board, Bracco Group Researcher, Bracco Group Medical Advisory Board, Merge Healthcare Incorporated Medical Advisory Board, Microsoft Corporation Researcher, Microsoft Corporation

The RSNA’s Imaging Sharing pilot project has been implemented at five academic affiliated healthcare facilities and offers patients the opportunity to electronically transfer their images to an image enabled patient health record. As part of this project, a national HelpDesk was set up as a resource to interface directly with patients to track and log all patient issues and to address and resolve each problem. At the onset, we anticipated difficulties with the actual setup of the account such as finding the URL for their patient health record (PHR), how/where to log in initially, and accessing their radiological exams with the token and password associated with each exam. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the initial experience of the HelpDesk in interfacing directly with patients.

The participating institutions are Mayo Clinic Rochester, University of California San Francisco, University of Chicago, University of Maryland Medical Center, and Mt. Sinai. Patients who choose to participate are given a token/exam ID and password for their images and choose one of two PHR vendors. They are also given the HelpDesk toll-free number for any issues that may arise with their account setup, image retrieval via the token and password, or any other future issues associated with their account. Issues were tracked using Mantis, a free web-based bug tracking system.

The most common problem (32%) was inability to log into the PHR or to create an account. Additional problems included inability to retrieve images due to token and password issues (26%), miscellaneous issues with the PHR vendor (23%), patient locked out from token/password (10%), questions about inability to upload images from a CD! (5%), issues creating passwords for individual tokens (5%), missing studies (3%), and request for multiple studies with one RSNA ID/password (2%). A small percentage of patients had more than one problem.

Many of the problems were expected, but a few unexpected problems arose. However, all of these were resolved through the HelpDesk or by escalating the problems to the appropriate party (PHR, participating institutions, Clearinghouse server).

The HelpDesk allows us to identify and reduce problems with electronic access to images and reports by modifying the process, while empowering users to view and share images with healthcare personnel.

Awan, Y, Kunce, A, Fossett, J, Awan, O, Chen, J, Siegel, E, The RSNA’s Image Sharing Project: Initial Challenges from the Patients’ Perspective.  Radiological Society of North America 2012 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 25 - November 30, 2012 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2012/12024477.html