The Purview Blog

Here’s a familiar story. A new patient sets up an appointment to see a specialist. She has been dealing with her current health issues for years and has built up a shoe box full of prior records. The specialist, however, has no way to capture these prior records and is forced into one of the following options:

• Have the patient bring the records with her to her appointment
• Have the patient ship the records through the mail
• Have the patient email whatever records they can to the practice
• Disregard the prior records and start from scratch

As I am sure you know, your staff are an essential component of your healthcare organization. They bring comfort to your patients, efficiency to your process, and growth to your business as a whole, enabling you to reach more patients in increasingly innovative and life changing ways. So when you are setting up a remote second opinion service, you need to consider how to hire (or choose from within your existing staff) the right team. Since you are here, you likely are wondering what kind of staff do you need to offer remote second opinions, and more specifically, should you hire a dedicated administrator for your remote second opinion program? 

Although much international travel has been curtailed due to the pandemic, healthcare organizations are still finding a ready audience with prospective patients abroad. Without in-person visits, delivering medical care to patients can be challenging. However, remote second or expert opinions can overcome these geographic inconveniences without sacrificing great medical care.

Ever since the case of Smith v. Grant, sharing medical images in the courtroom has been an accepted tool in the arsenal of litigation attorneys. But understanding exactly how to use medical images, ensuring that you have them when you need them, and optimizing their presentation, can be the difference between winning and losing at trial.

The use of medical images as evidence in a court case has become a pre-requisite for cases constructed by personal injury, workers' compensation, and criminal attorneys. This digital evidence is subject to the same discovery standards as hard copy documents and photographs. As such, the attorney has to be prepared to share these digital images with opposing counsel as they prepare for trial. But medical images are just compilations of electronic bits, subject to strict privacy law and are only as good as the medical image viewer on which they are analyzed. This presents a special challenge as it relates to transport and sharing of these medical images.