Hello Everyone,

Is it possible to interface CC Workstation or CC Server with EMR systems?  A lot of my physicians would love to be able to integrate/interface with PACS Viewer or Servers to be able to view the images within the EMR system.

Can CC be able to handle that?

Is there anyone else on this fourm who has come across the same problem?

Is there anyone who has been able to resolve this problem?

Your feed back and suggestion would be highly appreciative.

 

Thanks

Tim

Hi Tim,

I've added an automation service to the latest version of the viewer, which will be officially released within the next few weeks.  It's been implemented as a web service hosted inside the viewer process, allowing remote processes (such as your EMR) to open studies in the viewer.  If you want to experiment with it, you can always download the latest version of the code.  This link tells you how to do it.

Note that automation of the viewer requires code to be written for your EMR - there is no way to automate a viewer application 'out of the box'.

Hope this helps,

Stewart

Hi Tim,

What kind of integration did you have in mind? Do you mean, for example, embedding an image viewing component in a an EMR web page?

N.

Hello

I am also very intererested in this kind of integration. What kind of parameters (patient id? acq. id? ) the viewer accepts?
When will the office release will be available? Is there yet any documentation available for this web service hosted process if I download & compile the source to try this integration out?

Best regards,
Janne

Hello

I am also very intererested in this kind of integration. What kind of parameters (patient id? acq. id? ) the viewer accepts?
When will the office release will be available? Is there yet any documentation available for this web service hosted process if I download & compile the source to try this integration out?

Best regards,
Janne

Hi, the short answer to your question is that the viewer automation interface accepts Study Instance Uid only. However, there is a second web service that can be used to query by patient id and accession# (or any other criteria you want). If you are using managed code, I've written a bridge class that can either be used directly, or as an example of how these 2 services can be used in combination to automate the viewer. The bridge class has convenience methods for opening directly by A# or Patient Id.

Right now, there isn't any documentation, but when 1.3 is released (hopefully within the next couple of weeks) there will be documentation in the developer's guide. You can certainly download the latest source code and give it a try. The Automation Test Client is a pretty good example of a simple worklist application that automates the viewer.

Hope this helps,
Stewart

Hi

Thank you for your quick answer! Sounds very good to me! I will wait for the 1.3 release and try it out then.

Best regards,
Janne

Hello Super User,

Thank you for replying to my previous comment. Well the problem I have seen with most commercial EMR that are currently available in the market is that you have to first convert the images ie. x-ray or Ultrasound or CT into jpeg format. Most EMR program do not recognize .dcm format at all.

Once converted into .jpeg format you than are able to attach to the patient file.

 

This process is very laborious and requires a lot of time in converting and save the images for the right patient.

It would be wonderful to have an embedded image viewing component in an EMR web based or client server based system. Or where the small thumnail is present on the EMR page and then by clicking it, the iamge viewing component is activated for that particular patient. Does that make any sense?

 

If you have any other ideas that could be more effective and efficient please do mention it.

 

Cheers

Tim

Hello Stewart,

Sorry Im not a .NET programmer as a matter of fact I really suck in programming. I dont know why though

I wish I could programm in .NET. Let me know what you suggest wold be the right approach. The EMR programm that I have used is in C++.

What would the vendor of the EMR have to do to communicate with the viewer? What would be the best approach?

I would appreciate your suggestion in this matter.

 

Thanks

Tim

Hi Tim, I see what you are saying about the EMR - that does sound laborious. ClearCanvas is pretty flexible when it comes to this sort of thing: there are already clipboard plugins to export to JPG, and there's the automation interface as well. The catch with any of this stuff is that, to make the integration seamless, the EMR has to have the appropriate functionality, too; for example, a service to import the JPGs for a certain patient, or a way to automate the viewer, etc.

I think using automation is your best bet. I've written the section in the developer's guide, which I hope will be very straightforward. I've written it in such a way that you can pretty much copy and paste the code samples into your own application and by the time you've read it, you'll have automation working in your application. If you can't use .NET, though, it will be a little more difficult as you'll probably have to use an unmanaged proxy generator like gSoap. Another option might be to use C++ /CLI where you can mix managed and unmanaged code in the same dll. The only thing I've verified to work is gSoap, and although the code it generates may look a bit daunting, it's actually pretty easy to use.

Anyway, the documentation will be available very soon, so please stay tuned!
Stewart

Hello Stewart,

Thanks for the new Version Release. I will await your reply on how we can implement this in EMR/EHR systems.

It will help a lot of physicians to be able to view the images in a more efficient method. Furthermore is there a way to add or merge final or preliminary Radiology reports to a particular study. The reports tend to be in the .pdf format or .doc?

I know in Osirix you just drag the file and it wil attach it to the study automatically.

 

Cheers

Tim

 

Hi Tim, sorry for the late reply.

I'm not sure I can give you any more information than I did in my previous posts with regards to how to integrate the viewer into your EMR.  If there's something in particular that is unclear, please let me know and I'll try to help out.

As of right now, you can't attach external documents to a study in CC.  It's a great idea, though - I've entered a ticket here.  I will say, however, that it's unlikely you will see this feature in CC any time soon.  Although we've come a long way, there's still a lot of pretty important stuff that needs to be added first.

Best Regards,
Stewart

Hello Stewart,

Happy New year to you and everyone. You guys are doing a splendid job with the introduction of RIS system.  I understand that other issues may take precendence over what I had suggested. However if you know anyone who has implemented or created a method to interface with EMR systems. Please do let me know....

 

Again thank you so much for your advise and help.

 

Please keep up the good work ....

 

cheers

Tim