How Enterprise and Vendor Neutral Archives can help bridge the EHR gap

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have made significant advancements in storing and managing structured data, such as demographic information, laboratory results, and medication records. However, they often face challenges when it comes to handling unstructured data, which includes free-text clinical notes, scanned documents, and other forms of narrative information. This can leave gaps in the patient’s clinical history at point of care. For instance, the inability for a provider to retrieve and view an imaging exam. Or it could lead to inefficiencies such as requiring the provider to access another departmental system to access and view the data.

Some of the gaps or limitations in storing unstructured data in EHRs include:

1. Standardization: Unstructured data in EHRs often lack standardized formats, making it difficult to extract data from diverse clinical notes or documents.
2. Searchability: Unstructured data stored in EHRs may not be easily searchable or discoverable. This is because many traditional EHR systems primarily focus on structured data fields, which limits the ability to efficiently retrieve specific information from unstructured sources.
3. Interoperability: EHRs from different vendors may have varying approaches to handling unstructured data, which can prevent interoperability thus making data exchange difficult. Without consistent standards for representing and sharing unstructured data, it becomes challenging to integrate information from multiple sources. Even when fully interoperable, differences in patient IDs between systems can cause at best missing information, and at worst, wrongly attibuted patient data.
4. Storage capacity: Unstructured data, such as clinical notes or scanned documents, can take much more storage capacity than structured data, or require special storage support. EHR systems may face limitations in handling and managing large amounts of unstructured data, and this can lead to performance issues and increased costs.
5. Privacy and security concerns: EHRs need to ensure robust privacy and security measures when storing and sharing data. Unauthorized access or breaches can have severe consequences, highlighting the importance of robust security frameworks for unstructured data in EHRs. Unstructured data may contain sensitive information thus often needs its own unique security controls and methods.

Addressing these gaps could assist EHRs to improve their ability to handle and provide access to unstructured data, helping to provide a comprehensive patient record and assist in clinical decision-making. One technology that can help close the gap is a Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA). When properly integrated, they can help augment the ability of EHRs to handle and access unstructured data, particularly patient imaging exams. A VNA is a technology solution that acts as a central repository for medical images and related data, regardless of the imaging modality or vendor-specific formats.

 

Here's how a VNA can assist in managing unstructured data:

1. Storage and consolidation: A VNA can store and manage a vast amount of unstructured data, including patient imaging exams such as X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and ultrasounds. It provides a single, centralized location for storing these image files and associated metadata, making it easier to access and retrieve them when needed.
2. Format standardization: VNA systems typically support various image formats and can convert proprietary formats into standard formats like DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine). By standardizing the image formats, VNAs enable seamless integration and interoperability with different EHR systems, allowing healthcare providers to access and view imaging exams within their preferred EHR interface.
3. Image lifecycle management: VNAs support the entire lifecycle of medical images, including ingestion, storage, distribution, and long-term archiving. They can manage the metadata associated with each image, such as patient demographics, study details, and imaging modality information. This comprehensive management of imaging data ensures its integrity, accessibility, and long-term preservation.
4. Interoperability and integration: A VNA acts as a bridge between multiple imaging systems and EHRs. It can integrate with various picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) used in healthcare organizations and provide seamless access to images from within the EHR workflow. This integration allows clinicians to view imaging exams directly from the patient's EHR record, enhancing the context and completeness of the patient's health information.
5. Scalability and performance: VNAs are designed to handle large volumes of imaging data efficiently. They offer scalability to accommodate growing storage needs and can support tagging and high-performance retrieval of images. This ensures that healthcare providers can access patient imaging exams quickly and seamlessly, even in high-demand environments.
6. Data preservation and disaster recovery: VNAs prioritize data preservation and disaster recovery capabilities. They employ redundant storage and backup mechanisms to ensure the integrity and availability of imaging data. In case of hardware failures, natural disasters, or system outages, the VNA can restore the data and provide uninterrupted access to imaging exams, minimizing downtime and potential data loss.

By leveraging a VNA alongside an EHR, healthcare organizations can enhance their ability to store, manage, and access unstructured data like patient imaging exams. This integration facilitates a more comprehensive view of the patient's health information, helps support clinical decision-making, and streamlines workflows for healthcare providers.

Learn more about GE HealthCare’s VNA solution, Edison™ Datalogue™.