Cardea Technology’s Bone Densitometry Blog

What happens when a reading physician/radiologist encounters a bone mineral density (BMD) scan that requires reanalysis? Perhaps the regions of interest (ROIs) need adjustment or a vertebra should be removed from analysis.

We’ve observed a variety of situations. Sometimes a post-it note is attached to the scan printout and the printout is sent back to the technologist. Perhaps the physician walks down the hall and explains what needs to be done to the technologist. In any case, it is easy for these scans to fall through the cracks.

Reanalysis of scans is built into BoneStation’s workflow. During the review process the reading physician has an option to request a reanalysis (see this post for more details regarding the review process). Doing so initiates a series of events.

• The reading physician is presented with a form where he/she types in the details of what needs to be done.
• The form is sent, in an email, to the technologist that performed the scan.
• The status of the exam in BoneStation is changed to Being Reanalyzed and appears in an Awaiting Reanalysis queue in BoneStation.
• When the technologist sends the scan back to BoneStation they are placed back on the Ready to be read queue.

BoneStation also shows the workflow status of recent exams. The screen shot above demonstrates work to be done and where each exam is in the process.  Each participant (technologist or reading physician) can then focus on their tasks in moving the exam through the process.

• A technologist will be interested in Exam Pending, which means that BoneStation is awaiting for a scan(s) – in this case a hip scan.  When the hip scan arrives the exam goes to Exam Ready.
• Exam Ready indicates the exam is ready to be reviewed. Exams that are at Ready status appear on the Review List.
• Being Reanalyzed means the reviewing physician has requested a reanalysis.
• Reviewed means a report has been created and it needs to be distributed and/or printed.
• Completed means the report has been distributed – typically to the EMR.

BoneStation’s workflow facilitates how busy bone density departments work. Scans needing reanalysis are an intrinsic part of quality reporting and are handled efficiently.

This posting is the second in a series that discusses cloud based computing and benefits to bone density providers.  For a brief description of The Cloud and cloud based computing, see our earlier posting.

In this article we’ll focus on workflow.  A typical bone density department has several participants involved in processing bone density scans.

• Technologist – interacts with patient and performs scan and analysis
• Reviewing Physician – interprets scans and creates report
• Scheduler – in a multi-DXA center, may need to schedule patient on same DXA as prior exam
• Office Staff – distributes and/or prints reports

A cloud-based system can make an entire team function more efficiently and smoothly.  Each participant interacts at a different phase in the scanning and reporting process and can be prompted to perform their part of the work at the appropriate time.

Here is a screenshot of the workflow process in BoneStation.  The first column is the patient; second column shows the scans, and the third column is the exam status.  Of course, the tasks can be sorted and filtered by the status.

This screen shot demonstrates work to be done and where each exam is in the process.  Each participant can then focus on their tasks in moving the exam through the process.

• A technologist will be interested in Exam Pending, which means that BoneStation is awaiting for a scan(s) – in this case a hip scan.  When the hip scan arrives the exam goes to Exam Ready.
• Exam Ready indicates the exam is ready to be reviewed.
• Being Reanalyzed means the reviewing physician has requested a reanalysis.
• Reviewed means a report has been created and it needs to be distributed and/or printed.

Cloud based software lends itself to making teams more productive.    Multiple users have access to the same information and processes.  This is difficult to achieve with desktop software, which typically isolates users from each other.