Request and results sharing workflow for radiology on a National/ regional scale

Sharing the results of radiological diagnostic studies, both images and reports, and insight in the workflow, between healthcare institutions.

Purpose and Business Need

This use case supports the secured sharing of reports (including their publishing, finding and retrieval) and imaging studies across a group of hospitals and practices within a region or nation. It provides ambulatory healthcare professionals with secure yet easy online access to patients’ imaging results, as well as to any prior diagnostic examinations from imaging departments (which can be used either for comparison or to avoid duplicating imaging procedures). In this Use Case, the tracking of the diagnostic study workflow is also described.

EHDS Context

Primary use

Health Information Domain and EHDS Priority Data Category

• Radiology
  • o Medical Images and Imaging Reports

Context

This Use Case has the objective of sharing imaging information beyond the boundaries of a typical, single hospital organisation. It can be used to make the information available to practitioners in different organisational entities. It builds on the “request and results sharing workflow for laboratory” use case which is described immediately below.

Participants

• Specialist – requests the diagnostic study
• Radiologist – performs the diagnostic study, and writes the radiology report
• HCP – general practitioner or specialist – receiver(s) of the results of the diagnostic study

Functional process flow

A patient is suffering from lung cancer and has received surgical treatment in a hospital. After discharge from the hospital, imaging information – such as results from computer tomography – is made available to the patient’s primary care physician as well as to an office-based medical oncological specialist for follow-up treatment.