Nuance Partners with Radimetrics on Dose Reporting Solutions
Nuance and radiation dose monitoring and management software provider Radimetrics have announced the integration of their technologies, which will help radiologists monitor and report on patient exposure to imaging-related radiation.
The solutions allow hospitals and imaging centers to automate dose reporting as part of the PowerScribe 360 | Reporting platform, a speech-enabled documentation workflow used by one-third of all U.S. radiologists.
Beginning in July, California will require facilities performing CT scans to record radiation dosages as part of patients' radiology reports or as an attached protocol page. While California is the first state to take official action to manage and control this issue, numerous groups, including the FDA, The Joint Commission, Image Wisely, and Image Gently, are working to address patient radiation overexposure across the United States.
"Through the integration of PowerScribe with Radimetrics' software, Nuance is taking the lead on providing a radiation dose reporting mechanism that helps safeguard patients without tasking radiologists with another layer of reporting complexity," said Janet Dillione, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Healthcare, in a statement. "The California mandate to regulate overexposure to imaging-related radiation is a sign of things to come. Like other healthcare regulations, such as Meaningful Use and ICD-10, our goal is to help healthcare organizations get ahead of such transitions and, in the case of the California law, to reduce negative side effects of diagnostic exams and increase patient safety."
The integration of Nuance's PowerScribe 360 | Reporting with Radimetrics' eXposure solution will allow radiologists across the country to automate the inclusion of radiation dose information as part of the patient report without reliance on manual input, which can be prone to error and disruptive to clinical documentation workflow. Additionally, as a result of this integration, radiologists will be able to easily track patients' radiation exposure across scans and ensure that scans are performed in accordance with appropriate imaging protocol.
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has been working on a strategy to help all five UC Medical Centers comply with the upcoming SB1237 California legislation. At UCSF, they have leveraged eXposure in combination with PowerScribe 360 | Reporting to automate the inclusion of dose information within patients' radiology reports.
"We don't know what we would have done without this automated dose reporting solution; it will help us ensure that medical imaging is done as safely and as effectively for the patient as possible," said UCSF Radiology Program Manager Kate MacGregor, in a statement. "In addition to legislation compliance, this new workflow will potentially save hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of radiology staff dictation, and perhaps help us to avoid countless errors, which would be more likely had this been done manually."