Blog

When is a patient a patient?

Hospitals and their specialist providers often raise the question: “When does a patient become ‘my patient,’” when seeking to provide medical services remotely, where the patient is in a geography that doesn’t fall within their current licensure. While this may seem like a simple question, its complexity can be determinative of a potentially complex legal issue.

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Lawyers Handling Medical DICOM Images for Litigation; How to get the most value from evidence without risking a HIPAA violation

Litigators involved in medical malpractice, personal injury, workers compensation, elder care law and other related medical fields, are realizing that medical images hold a trove of information that if used correctly, can make all the difference in their case. Often lawyers take the easier path by using "pictures" of medical images – jpg files – rather than the DICOM images themselves. This may be sufficient for a simple case. But a more complex case requires the richer, more complex and more difficult to view, store and share DICOM formatted file.

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Horos vs Purview Image, Osirix, etc.

Horos & Purview Image - What’s the Difference?

Horos, a free medical image viewer for Mac computers, is used around the world due by over half a million (500,000) users in over 170 countries due to its powerful capabilities, ease of use, and free price point. Clinicians, researchers, students, and even IT professionals can easily handle medical images in a powerful viewer moments after downloading the program. With all of that in mind, what obstacles do Horos users run into that lead them to seek a purpose-built solution like Purview?

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Navigating Turbulent Legal Waters: HIPAA Responsibilities for Lawyers Handling Private Health Information in Litigation

Attorneys who handle the sensitive private health information (PHI) of their clients are responsible for the confidentiality and safekeeping of their client’s medical records. For lawyers engaged in litigation involving healthcare matters, understanding and adhering to requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)[1] is not just a regulatory requirement but a crucial aspect of protecting the privacy and confidentiality of individuals' health data as well as safeguarding of the firm’s reputation.

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How to Share Multiple Studies Simultaneously

Over the years, we've worked with countless imaging facilities, radiologists, researchers, and other experts to share medical records electronically with Purview Image™. Their feedback has provided invaluable insight into ways we can continuously improve on the Purview Image ™ solution. Some of our users have discussed gaining even greater efficiencies by sharing multiple image studies of a patient in one electronic link or email at a time. 

This week, we are covering exactly that - the Purview Image™ multi-share feature! Learn how you can reduce the number of steps it takes to grant someone access to a case with multi-study sharing.

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Why Having a Physician Licensed in Every Jurisdiction Doesn’t Completely Satisfy Licensure Regulations

The following is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. The information provided in this post is not a substitute for professional legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. Readers should always consult with a licensed attorney or qualified legal professional for advice on specific legal issues. The author of this post and any entities associated with the author are not responsible for any actions or decisions taken by readers based on the information provided in this paper.



"If I have a physician or contract with a team of physicians licensed in every state,
does that make my remote second opinions issued anywhere legal?"

This question inevitably comes up. On its surface, you might expect that this encompassing licensure paves the way for your organization to issue remote second opinions anywhere in the country. However, a close reading of the law of each state contradicts that premise.

In order to provide a remote second opinion, a physician that is not licensed in the state in which the patient is physically located (ostensibly, one of your specialists), must either rely on an exception or exemption from that state’s licensure laws and regulations in order to legally deliver that opinion. Having another physician, not the one rendering the opinion, who is licensed in the target state, may actually not provide you with sufficient legal stature.

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Will the DICOM Router Save Me Time?

Over the past decade, we've found that the amount of medical images and other records that are being shared electronically has exponentially increased from a combination of improved cloud computing capabilities and the market's desire for data mobility. The 2020 pandemic spurred further innovation and adoption, as physicians and patients all over the world required digital solutions to function. As the adoption of electronic sharing grows, both physicians and patients benefit from increased access to medical records and reduced lead time. There are a few ways to share studies electronically, but some are more efficient than others. 

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8 Ways to Use Purview Image™ That Might Surprise You

Did you know that you can save time by using dictation within Purview Image™? Or edit a DICOM image for anonymization, to correct errors and so on? There are many use cases for Purview Image with a growing customer user base ranging from radiology to veterinary to research and education. Whether you've been using Purview Image™ for years or are just getting started, here are some of our favorite ways to use it: 

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Will Moving Your Cloud PACS Back On-Site Really Save You Money?

Healthcare industry finances are still rocky post-pandemic. Many smaller practices are feeling the pressure to cut back on expenses. Independent practices struggle with decreasing reimbursement rates. There is a tremendous cost burden to keep up with regulatory pressure. Malpractice insurance premiums continue to rise. To top it off, technology and equipment infrastructure costs are expansive.

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Doctor on Deck: How Health Workers Can Take a Break

With just a few weeks left in August, Summer is in full swing. Temperatures are high, long nights remain, and celebrations are aplenty. Post-pandemic 'revenge vacations' are still a thing in 2023, and have hit the healthcare industry especially hard. During a health worker shortage, how do you ensure all employees get the time off they need to recharge, while continuing to ensure you have full patient coverage? Patient emergencies can emerge at anytime.

This is where flexible cloud solutions, like Purview Image™ come in. If you need to be available for emergent situations, Image allows you to view patient images on any device and from any location, at anytime. So whether you end up on the beaches of Hawaii, or simply need a staycation, you can opt to stay as connected as you'd like. Perhaps you can even extend your stay, knowing that your patients will be taken care of regardless of where you are?

Let's scroll through a few fun examples while you're soaking in the rays and even try it out for yourself! Have you ever seen an x-ray of a sea turtle, a CT of a dolphin, or iguana? 

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Mastering DICOM Editing for Research & Education

Physicians wear many hats, including serving as educators and researchers. Since medical images can be invaluable during presentations, Purview Image™ is often used by these physicians and their staff to collect, store, and access cases for subsequent review. Purview Image™ has also been used by large health systems to conduct major research initiatives because the platform easily grants users the ability to collaborate remotely and securely back up files within a HIPAA compliant, cloud-based system.

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The Boundaries of Horos: Key Takeaways from the Webinar

In case you missed the webinar, How Far Can Horos Go?, where Les Trachtman and I spoke about Horos, here's a recap!

Horos is a free medical image viewer for Mac computers that allows users to view studies that are locally stored on their machine. It's great for quick and easy access to scans that you have a local copy of.

Although it has its perks, there are a few drawbacks to Horos. The limitations of Horos include no Windows PC version, limited reporting options, and no FDA approval for primary diagnosis.

Common issues for Horos users include:

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Unraveling Cross-State Licensure For Second Opinions: Highlights From The Live Q&A Discussion

Although lumped together into the category of telemedicine, the law of most U.S. states and territories treatsepisodic medical consultations (physician to physician consults or remote second opinions) differently. 

Currently, 15 states and territories specifically permit an out-of-state physician to provide a consultation or second opinion directly to a local patient. An expanded number of 35 jurisdictions allow this consult to occur as long as this consult or opinion is done in conjunction with the local physician who maintains the physician -patient relationship.

Only 4 states actually prohibit these consults, leaving 15 jurisdictions silent on whether this practice is or is not permitted.

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How Far Can Horos Go? What To Do When Working With Limited Sharing, Access, and Mobility

If you’ve used Horos, a free open-source DICOM viewer for Mac computers, you may know about the helpful tools accessible at your fingertips. The locally installed program allows users to view images in 3D, generate multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) images, and even perform DICOM sends over a network.  All of this for free? Yep. Horos is a great app that happens to be supported by Purview, a software-driven healthcare company whose mission is to open access to medical expertise, improving patient outcomes.

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Preventing Catastrophic Outcomes at the Track - We Can Do Better

Even when Mage “placed” in the Florida Derby several weeks ago in an impressive run, no one would have imagined he’d win the run for the roses at Churchill Downs.  While 15-1 odds are sizable for a Derby winner, the odds of seven horses dying in the days leading up to the Kentucky Derby were more remote.  Both beat the odds. As of this week, there was an eighth death, as Rio Moon suffered a, “catastrophic injury to his left leg,” according to NBC News

While the insiders who make their livings on or around the racetrack know that injuries and even the death of a horse is not entirely preventable, Churchill Downs might want to take some lessons from other venues and racing associations who have gotten out in front of this issue.

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Second Opinions for Children - An Interview with Dr. Jesse Skoch, Neurosurgeon at Cincinnati Children's Hospital

Prior to the emergence and adoption of telemedicine, when your child became sick, you would start at your local pediatrician, and when it was serious, you would seek the best local specialty care, often from your local hospital. If you were lucky, your local hospital would either have a great pediatric department, or you would actually have access to a hospital that specialized in pediatric medicine. If it was complex or rare, and your local area did not have the expertise your child needed, you would need to choose between settling with the best they could offer, or seeking out the hospital with the right specialty. 

This can mean packing your family up, and traveling to get the right kind of treatment and medical expertise your child needs. You may travel to multiple facilities before finding the right expertise or desired treatment. The list of burdens and disruptions this places on families is long, from potentially exposing a child’s fragile immune system throughout the journey, to disruption of schooling, a parent’s ability to work, medical and travel costs, as well as overall continuity. This all during a time where you want to bring some level of predictability and stability back into your child’s and your family’s lives. For some families, this has meant permanently relocating. For others, traveling or moving is simply not possible, and you must settle with the best expertise accessible locally. 

Fortunately, that was then. While there is still room to grow, many children’s hospitals have recognized this need and have dramatically expanded access to care through online second opinion and consultation programs. Some of the nations top ranked children’s hospitals, from the east to west coasts, now offer online consultation services. This list includes, but is not limited to:

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Online Pre-Surgical Reviews: A Step Towards Improving Patient and Physician Experience Along With Throughput, That Everyone Can Get Behind

In a rural town in the United States, Jordan’s infant son, Milo, was born with a cranial abnormality. Upon medical evaluation at their local hospital, the infant was diagnosed with craniosynostosis, a congenital disorder characterized by premature fusion of cranial sutures leading to a misshapen skull and potential brain growth restriction. Milo required major surgery to address his condition, but due to the scarcity of specialized healthcare services in their region, particularly for such a complex procedure, the family could not access the necessary medical expertise. Desperate for support, Jordan researched her son's condition and located a children's hospital with a top-ranked Craniofacial surgeon. Yet, the facility was nearly one thousand miles away from their hometown, and due to financial constraints, such as the cost of transportation, lodging, and time off from work, Jordan doubted their ability to make the trip across the country for the surgical evaluation. She worried that even if they could get there, what would happen if her son was not a good candidate for the surgery? It was not a realistic option for them to visit multiple hospitals in person to receive second opinions, and she felt stuck. Jordan’s story represents the struggle of many Americans to access quality medical care for their children without facing significant geographic and financial barriers. For this reason, many families seek answers closer to home, instead of receiving care from top experts, which can reduce positive healthcare outcomes.

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Can Physicians Really Work From Anywhere?

Physicians tend to wear many hats from seeing patients, conducting research or clinical studies, providing instruction at a teaching hospital, or even handling business issues. Now, many physicians are also working across multiple facilities, requiring some to catch up on cases while they travel, or even work from home. You heard me right - some physicians can and do work from home.

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Race to the Top with Purview Image: Streamline the Review of a Horse's Medical History

As a track or equine veterinarian, it's important to ensure that horses are healthy and fit to race before the season starts. This not only helps each horse to perform at their best, but puts you in a position to succeed by avoiding unexpected complications. Pre-inspection is a crucial step in the process of ensuring that horses are healthy and ready, and when it comes to reviewing a horse's medical history quickly and efficiently, Purview Image™ is the tool vets rely upon.

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The Legal Reality of Issuing Second Opinions for Out of State Patients

The Legal Reality of Issuing Second Opinions for Out of State Patients

The following paper is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. The information provided in this paper is not a substitute for professional legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. Readers should always consult with a licensed attorney or qualified legal professional for advice on specific legal issues. The author of this paper and any entities associated with the author are not responsible for any actions or decisions taken by readers based on the information provided in this paper.

In the United States, it is well established that individual states and territories, rather than the federal government, regulate the practice of medicine within their borders. That means that unless there is an exception, a provider must be licensed in the state in which the patient is located in order to deliver a medical diagnosis or to prescribe treatment to a patient in a specific jurisdiction. The licensure process is burdensome and expensive, effectively impeding all but the most determined physician from seeking this legal authority to practice beyond his or her state’s borders.

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Work Smarter, Not Harder with a Cloud PACS

With the ongoing shortage of medical professionals, efficiencies that enable patient throughput have become a top priority. Bottlenecks in patient care and delivery not only negatively impact patient outcomes, but also the bottom line. 

When working with medical images and radiology reports, gaining access to records in a timely manner is critical. Providers often express their frustration with accessing records on disparate platforms since the time spent switching decreases their productivity. 

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Ready to Launch Your Second Opinion Program? What to Expect When Preparing for 'Go-Live'

Congratulations! Your institution has considered the countless benefits of offering a Remote Second Opinion (RSO) program, such as improved patient access and increased geographic reach. Your team is undoubtedly ready to jump into planning out the best program for your patients and providers. While it can be easy and exciting to visualize your RSO program helping patients, the process of getting to your go-live date can feel overwhelming. Your team may be asking big-picture questions such as:

“How do I start a Remote Second Opinion program?”
“What stakeholders need to be involved in the RSO implementation process?”
“How long will the implementation of my RSO program take?” 

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Design for Better Health Care - Are We There Yet?

A few weeks ago, the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) held their annual conference in San Antonio, Texas. The show floor was filled with impressive futuristic devices from augmented reality glasses, to home health monitoring technologies, big data products, and more. Executives from Microsoft and Google, Kim Swafford and Bakul Patel, took the stage together, kicking off the weekend with exciting updates and reminders of helpful features that emerged from the pandemic era, such as YouTube’s improved searchability, now including personal stories to help people learn about health conditions.  When asked ‘what’s next?,’ panelists joked about the potential for ChatGPT, Kim learning about it from her teenager, but both ultimately settled on describing the buzzword of the weekend, omnichannel.’ 

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Collaboration - A Modern Necessity For Targeted Cancer Treatment?

Cancer continues to be the second leading cause of death, with an estimated 1.9 million new diagnoses and 609,360 cancer deaths in the United States in 2022, according to the American Cancer Society. This statistic alone is astounding, with the number - 1.9 million -rivaling the population size of our largest cities. It would be like the entire population of Philadelphia being diagnosed with cancer or nearly all of Washington, D.C. passing away from it. And we are only talking about one year.

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Second Opinion Guidance for Families from Cincinnati Children's Hospital & Dr. Skoch

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is globally recognized for their leading research, education and innovation in pediatric care. Consistently ranked as a top pediatric hospital by U.S. News & World Report in their annual Honor Roll, Cincinnati Children’s was most recently ranked as third in the nation in 2022. With second opinion programs emerging as a new channel for accessing specialty expertise from afar, Cincinnati Children’s has ensured that children across the United States can benefit from access to their widely acclaimed disciplines and physicians through their own online second opinion program.  

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Serving Out of State Patients? The 2023 Post-Pandemic, Post-PHE Update

Now that the dust is settling as we get accustomed to our post-pandemic world, those in the telemedicine world and organizations thinking about providing remote second opinions are still seeking clarity on what remote programs are possible. Has anything changed? Or, are we back to where we started before the pandemic?

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Why Asynchronous Part 3; Benefits for Payers

In ‘Why Asynchronous Part 1,’ we explored the benefits asynchronous modalities can offer to patients, including improved access, convenience, potential for reduced costs, improved experience, faster throughput, safeguarding of health, and clinical outcomes. Patients have collectively spoken through unprecedented rising demand for telehealth services globally. 

In, ‘Why Asynchronous Part 2,’ we discussed the benefits to providers ranging from their ability to better reach and help new patients, to adding revenue sources, improved market positioning, global brand awareness, opportunities for experience, convenience for physicians, reduced physician burnout, and improved retention. 

Part 3 of our ‘why asynchronous’ series explores the benefits which asynchronous modalities can offer Payers, ranging from improved data and analytics, to improved throughput, controls, and ultimately lower total healthcare expenditures.

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Why Asynchronous Part 2; Provider Benefits & Opportunities

In an earlier post, we discussed asynchronous modalities from the patient’s perspective, which also provides an introduction to asynchronous modalities:

By design, asynchronous modalities, also called ‘store-and-forward,’ sacrifice real-time, in-person communication between a patient and their medical team for remote asynchronous (not in real-time) communication. There are many positive reasons as to why both the patient and the provider would agree to, and even prefer such an arrangement. There are similarly many reasons as to why asynchronous modalities are inappropriate for handling certain cases. 
Read the entire article: Why Asynchronous Part 1; How Patients Benefit

This article will focus on the benefits asynchronous modalities can offer providers and their physicians.

Access for Patients
Asynchronous modalities open access to patients outside of a provider’s primary service area. For second opinion programs, patients are typically making the request due to navigating an especially rare or complex health issue. These patients often do not have the same caliber of expertise in their local area, or are not getting the results they want. Asynchronous modalities connect the patient, and often the referring physician as well, to experts with deep specialties in their particular condition or disease. Access to specialty care is a great need for millions of Americans, asynchronous solutions take a step towards providing equitable access.

Strategic Growth for New Revenue Sources
More than three years following the start of the pandemic, a lot has happened, but it seems that everyone can agree on one thing - healthcare as we know it has changed. Definitive Health reports that 76% of hospitals have implemented some form of telehealth, a 42% increase from 2019. In our earlier post, we discussed the rising demand and preferences of patients for telehealth modalities for access, cost and convenience, driving providers and payers to meet demand.

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Is Your Hospital Ready for a Second Opinion Program?

Demand for telehealth solutions has boomed over the past few years. Medicare telehealth visits alone grew from 840,000 in 2019 to 52.7 million in 2020, or 63-fold as shown right (source: Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff).

For cases deemed appropriate for telehealth, some studies have provided overwhelming evidence of increased patient satisfaction with remote visits compared to traditional in-person (urology; breast cancer; radiation oncology; general medicine). One of the main drivers? Convenience. Patients love removing the travel time and associated costs or tradeoffs that come with taking off work, finding childcare, and traveling to see a physician in person. Additionally, the CDC reports that 15%, or 49.8 million Americans live in rural parts of the U.S., which correlates with poorer health outcomes regardless of income level. Access to specialty carefor this population has been known to be especially difficult or impossible, but telehealth programs have introduced a new channel that many patients can take advantage of. 

In addition to increasing patient demand, there is a strong business case for Hospitals to expand their reach through telehealth modalities. A recent article by Purview's Dr. Christopher Schwartz, Remote Second Opinions: A Cure for the C-Suite Blues, describes the challenging financial state of many hospitals post-covid. Schwartz explains that, ‘during the lockdown alone, U.S. hospitalslost an estimated $22 billion in revenue due to cancellations in elective surgeries.’  Contrast this with the estimated value and market growth of the second opinion market at $10.7 billion by 2027with a CAGR 16.8%, and it is understandable why many hospitals are exploring the potential of these programs. Here, we outline key considerations for your organization as you assess readiness prior to launching a second opinion program.

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'It's Cancer - Now what?'


Here’s a story we have heard too many times - You go to the doctor for a routine checkup, mammogram, or to have something looked at that seems abnormal. The doctor or radiologist decides to order a few more tests just to be safe, including a biopsy. After waiting anxiously for days or even weeks, the results arrive. It’s cancer. Finding out 'it's cancer' was the reality for nearly 2 million people across the United States in 2022 according to the CDC.

Many cancer patients and survivors describe everything after this as, ‘being in a fog,’ or ‘white noise,’ where it’s difficult or impossible to hear anything else being said after the words ‘you have cancer.’ Oncologists understand this and will usually suggest that a friend or family member also attend early appointments to take notes and provide emotional support.

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what is structured reporting?

Structured Reporting vs. DICOM Structured Reporting

Radiology reports are essential for documenting and sharing a physician's findings. There are many ways of formatting these reports. This blog explores the difference between two that are often confused as the same thing but are fundamentally different. Knowing the difference between these two types of reports is essential when talking to your cloud PACS vendor. 

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The Top 10 Hottest Purview Blogs of 2022

As we near the end of 2022, we reflect on the past year of Purview's most read and shared blogs. Ranging from the new idea of establishing a 'virtual front door' in healthcare, to the impact of second opinions in pathology, patient resources, and the challenges that surround licensure in telehealth, these topics continue to resurface as we establish research and standards to inform what is best for today's patients in a rapidly changing field. 

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Applying Data Science to Healthcare

ZeeshanOne of the key experiences during one's time as a graduate is working as an intern. Gaining work experience is the foundation to boosting employability, especially as a master’s student. After landing an internship as Data Science and Visualization Intern at Purview this past Summer, I couldn't wait to experience the professional world.

Today, as my internship comes to a close, I feel it was one of the best decisions I could have made to start my career off right. This internship has helped me to expand my perspectives, has enhanced my personal and professional skills, and has encouraged me to apply my academic knowledge, ideas, and theories to solve real-world problems that the healthcare industry is grappling with.

One of the most critical parts of this internship included learning how to handle health data. I was introduced to HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a federal law that required the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information. Purview takes data privacy very seriously and sponsored me to receive HIPAA certification, encouraging me to put into practice what I was learning. 

This knowledge and training surrounding the careful treatment of personal data will impact all of my work in the future, regardless of whether I am working with health data. Protecting data privacy is an important public issue globally as apps and devices will continue to accumulate and track our personal data more and more each day. As an emerging data scientist, I feel that I share a major responsibility with my peers and colleagues to protect all people's privacy.

My capstone project during my time at Purview involved helping to establish and improve upon performance reporting for the health care organizations that Purview serves. Through various quantitative and qualitative metrics, we evaluated the quality of care, throughput, differences by division, patient access, and satisfaction amongst others.

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Why Children’s Hospitals Need a Remote Second Opinion Program Right Now

Pediatric health care workers are fearing the tripledemic. The RSV surge alone is overwhelming pediatric hospitals, according to the Advisory Board.[1] While today COVID seems to mostly be a retrospective, it still is a real threat. And the flu season is just beginning. Does that mean we are returning to pandemic-like conditions this winter?

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Are Remote Second Opinions an Option in Orthopedics?

Earlier this year, I injured my hand during a martial arts training session; I heard a popping noise at the same time that I felt a lightning bolt go through my finger. Ouch! Later that hour, I was in an urgent care center getting an x-ray taken of my hand. Working for a cloud-based medical records company, I figured that a doctor would need to see my scans someday, so I asked the x-ray technician how I could get my images to my provider. He told me that he can burn a CD for me and I can take it to my visit. Easy enough.

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The Critical Role of Foundations and Not-for-Profits in the Patient Provider Relationship

Nonprofits comprise 5.7% of the US GDP, contributing $2.62 trillion to the economy. But their impact goes well beyond their direct financial contribution. Foundations and not-for-profit organizations often act as catalysts for education and patient advocacy, providing a missing link between a patient and their health care provider. 

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What do we mean when we say 'adaptive services' and how can they help?

The workforce shortage of administrative staff is a critical issue facing our healthcare industry today. Just two weeks ago, on October 14th, a charge nurse at St. Michael’s Medical Center in Washington, called 911 when the ER became too much for her and her team to handle. With just 5 on staff, 45 patients in the ER and more on the way, the nurse asked the fire department for help. They stepped in, helping to take vital signs, move patients, and turn over rooms. Since then, this nurse’s call for help has been echoed by health workers everywhere as just that - a call for help.

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Thoughtful Automation in the Patient Experience; Lessons from Other Industries

What has your customer experience been like lately? Good customer service was once a consumer’s basic expectation across virtually every industry. Fast forward to today, and we find there is no shortage of horror stories between trying to deposit a check at the local bank to simply filling a prescription at your local pharmacy. Don’t get us started on the airline industry. 

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Welcome to the 'Virtual Front Door'

Anisette has been diagnosed as having early-onset Parkinson’s Disease.  She knows this is a difficult condition to diagnose correctly and that its repercussions will change her life. While she holds her physician who gave her the diagnosis in high regard, she recalls that one of her friends had an acquaintance that had been misdiagnosed and wants to be sure. Like most people, Anisette immediately goes online to try to understand her options, searching not only for information, but clarity and understanding. For Anisette, it’s imperative to ensure that she has taken every practical step in her own healthcare journey.

Over the last decade, the opportunities for patients seeking online information for a medical condition have greatly changed. Almost 3/4 will do their initial investigation online. Many seek out top specialists and programs in their particular field, but inevitably, experts are not always located nearby. Digital solutions can open access to patients who live anywhere with wifi.

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The Case for Multidisciplinary Review During Remote Second Opinions

Often referred to as “tumor boards,” multidisciplinary cancer treatment planning conferences can help patients gather input from a diverse panel of experts to holistically inform their care. Specialists range from all areas of cancer treatment, such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, pathology, radiology, and genetics, among others.  Review of complex or unusual cases in a tumor board is routine in most cancer centers and considered a marker of high-quality care.

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Five Reasons Why Your Hospital’s Second Opinion Program Is Not Growing

You may have heard the phrase ‘if you build it, they will come,’ popularized by the 1989 film, ‘The Field of Dreams.’ The problem is that this strategy only works in baseball fantasy. Launching a second opinion program is not so different from starting a new branch of business. Simply beginning to offer second opinions as a formalized service does not mean that patients will show up. In other words, if you build it - they will not necessarily come.

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When Your Child is Diagnosed with Cancer - Second Opinions Can Provide Clarity and Guidance

While no one should have to deal with cancer, it feels especially wrong to see a child, let alone your own child, receive this awful diagnosis. As a parent, nothing is more terrifying than the thought of losing your child. This year alone, 15,780 children will be diagnosed with Cancer. 1 in 285 children will be diagnosed with cancer by the time they are 20 years old. 

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Managing Risk in 'Curbside Consults': Systematize, Legalize & Monetize Your Second Opinion Program

Physician-to-physician consults are occurring in your hospital, potentially putting
your organization at risk, while lacking any direct financial benefits for the hospital.

Skilled and experienced physicians are your hospital’s most valuable asset. Their time and knowledge are in great demand. Yet, many regularly engage in a process of giving this away free of charge putting your organization at risk as they do.

Your best and most specialized physicians have unique knowledge and experience. When presented with a complicated diagnosis in your doctor’s subspeciality, colleagues and their patients, reach out for the opinion of your doctors. It’s an informal process and normally doesn’t have any material impact on your hospital. Or does it?

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What Happens If I Lose My Patient's Medical Images?

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” opined Benjamin Franklin. While the Founding Father may not have been speaking quite so literally, it’s an idea that will feel familiar to many healthcare professionals. We advise patients to eat well and exercise regularly, even when they’re in the best of health, knowing the long-term benefits far outweigh the short-term inconveniences.

Healthcare providers too should find some wisdom in Franklin’s words. A record storage system is a virtual necessity in our data-driven world, yet it’s one that too many practices overlook. A safe, secure cloud-based system offers many advantages for practitioners and patients alike, but some still balk, citing the fear of expense

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Uniform Telehealth Act Provides Stunning Enablement of Consults Across State Lines

The Uniform Law Commission (ULC), a group comprised of distinguished lawyers across all states and several US territories, passed a new Act that simplifies and enables states who enact it to regulate and promote the practice of telemedicine across state lines. The law provides that physicians who are appropriately licensed and certified in their home state may apply to any other state that has adopted this Act to practice telemedicine consistent with that state’s current regulations for patients within that foreign state. The Act requires that the out-of-state physician must pay a fee and register in that state, removing most other impediments from the interstate practice of telemedicine.

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Attracting International Second Opinion Patients

The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped healthcare for patients and providers alike. Telemedicine, once a niche offering, has taken root in the global consciousness as an everyday solution. In the United States, 13-17% of all healthcare visits now take place remotely and patients are eager to explore other digital health solutions, including virtual second opinions.

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How Can I Use Telehealth to Reach Rural Patients?

Around 15-20 percent of patients in the United States live in rural areas. Unfortunately, between primary care shortages, hospital closures, and geographic isolation, those patients are up against significant barriers to accessing healthcare. The National Rural Health Association reports there are only 30 specialists per 100,000 people in rural communities, compared to 263 specialists per 100,000 urban residents.

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Sharing Medical Records with Expert Witnesses: A Guide for Legal Professionals

As a legal professional, obtaining copies of your client's medical records can be a frustrating and time-consuming process. However, once you have the records, it's essential to use them efficiently by sharing them with medical experts or expert witnesses. Doing so requires a thorough understanding of the issues involved, including how to organize client records, share copies securely, protect PHI, and maintain attorney/client-privileged communication.

In this blog post, we'll provide a comprehensive guide on how to share medical records effectively and securely with expert witnesses. By following our tips, you can avoid delays and frustrations and maximize the value of the medical evidence in your case.

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How Much Does Purview Software Cost?

Purview is priced to meet the needs of nearly any size practice. We understand that providers generally get paid on a per visit, per procedure, or per diagnosis basis. Purview's goal is to price our solutions in a way that aligns with your business.

Purview has two major solution sets, one aimed at practices predominantly focused on medical images (or DICOM) and the other aimed at practices that utilize a more complete set of medical records, including radiology, pathology, EHR extracts, or test result.

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Horos vs. Purview - What's the difference?

Horos is a rich medical image viewer, with advanced visualization settings that make it a formidable option for people looking to view medical images on their Mac computer. This free open-source software has features found in many high-priced commercial image viewers, making it attractive for many applications involving desktop viewing and investigating even the most complex DICOM studies quickly and efficiently.

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Remote Second Opinions: A Cure for the C-suite Blues

You can hear the same sound coming from hospital C-Suites across the country. The drum of rain, the boom of thunder, and the splash of galoshes as the CFO searches for ways to ride out the COVID storm. 

The pandemic has been — and continues to be — an unprecedented financial strain on the U.S. healthcare system. Though the passage of the CARES Act in 2020 lessened the burden1, hospital CFOs now face rising inflation, a national labor shortage, and yet another wave of COVID infections. 

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How Vets Who Use Horos Store, Share, and Report

If you’re a vet who uses Horos, you’ve probably experienced the struggle of not having an efficient way to share and store images in one centralized location across multiple workstations.  You've used either file-sharing services, emailed, or burned a CD. These solutions are expensive, slow, clunky, disorganized, manual, and prone to error. 

Medical imaging technology traditionally has been an expensive capital investment for a typical veterinarian. It’s not surprising that vets are continually seeking ways to lower their imaging costs. These methods are great but there is a better answer…

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Why Not Every Hospital Should Consider a Virtual Second Opinion Program

Medical second opinions are fast becoming a standard patient request as a part of a critical diagnosis. Medicare encourages patients to receive a second opinion before a life-changing treatment or invasive surgery. Malpractice insurance carriers encourage second opinions to lower their risk. The Cleveland Clinic reported that the market for second opinions is expected to more than double from 2019, reaching seven billion dollars by 2024.

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can i see patients outside of my state

Practicing Medicine Beyond Your Own State's Border

In the US, regulation of the practice medicine is a state prerogative. Based upon one of the earliest precepts of the establishment of the federal government in the United States, states retain the power to regulate much of what occurs solely within their borders. Physicians are licensed in the state in which they practice and must adhere to that state's mandates. So, can a physician legally serve a patient in need of their specialty if they reside outside of their jurisdiction?

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Is Dropbox HIPAA Compliant for Medical Imaging?

If you’ve ever thought of sharing medical images or any other Protected Health Information (PHI) using Dropbox, you have probably asked yourself: "Is Dropbox HIPAA compliant for medical imaging." Dropbox is one of the most popular file sharing services and is on millions of desktop computers around the world. But just because you use it for many of your other tasks, does not mean you should use Dropbox for medical image storage. Here are 4 reasons to be careful when using Dropbox as your medical imaging solution...

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How to Drive Patient Engagement with Remote Consults

A mounting body of evidence shows that patient engagement can cut costs for healthcare organizations while also improving health outcomes. For example, an article from The Commonwealth Fund found that patients with lower activation scores end up costing more than patients with higher activation scores. Another study from Tractica demonstrates a correlation between higher patient engagement and positive wellness behaviors. 

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Purview Lite vs. Purview Image: What’s the Difference?

Purview has a range of products designed to improve access to medical image viewing software, make it easy to securely share and store all types of medical records and connect patients to better care. When we talk to our customers about our offerings, many of them ask us about the similarities and differences between Purview Lite and Purview Image and how to decide which product is best for their practice.  

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Is Cloud Storage Right for My Medical Imaging Modality?

For many doctors, specialists, hospitals, health care practices and medical facilities, the cloud holds a lot of promise for storing and  accessing medical imaging studies by physicians and patients alike. Luckily, virtual cloud storage can typically find an application for nearly every type of medical imaging modality, from CT scanners to MRI machines and everything in between. 

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Should I Compress DICOM Images? Optimizing Medical Images

 

Many Purview Image users have questions about DICOM images, including:  

  • Can DICOM files be compressed?
  • Are DICOM files large?
  • Why are DICOM files so large?
  • Can you email a DICOM file?
  • Why is the DICOM format most suitable for medical images?
  • How do I convert a DICOM to a JPEG?
  • What is image compression in radiology?

Today, this blog post will focus on whether DICOM medical images can be compressed, when it's appropriate to compress them, and how you can get started.  

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How Can Patients Send an Existing DICOM Medical Imaging Study?

Suppose a specialist physician in California is corresponding with a patient in Texas who has an urgent illness. The physician wants to schedule an emergency appointment, but needs to review the patient's medical imaging studies to properly confirm and address the diagnosis. The patient could send a CD hard copy of their studies through the mail, but this is costly and wastes valuable time. The CD could also get lost in transit or arrive to the physician broken or unreadable. 

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How to Charge Patients for Copies of their Medical Images, According to HIPAA

 

If you've been following our blog, you know by now that providing patients with electronic access to their medical images is cheaper and more efficient than burning and delivering CD copies. Giving patients online access to their images also offers many additional marketing benefits for your practice and easier access for your patients.

There's still a cost for this service, but you can expect it to be less than providing CDs. In either case, more and more providers and hospitals are integrating a HIPAA charge for medical records to help cover the expenses incurred by providing patients with copies of their images.

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Synchronous vs Asynchronous Communication in Telemedicine | Purview

 

In this series of blogs, Translating Healthcare, we will highlight and break down the meaning of phrases and terminology that are increasingly used, but not always widely understood. Today, we'll be unpacking the definitions of synchronous and asynchronous and examples of how they apply to the medical world. 

Synchronous vs Asynchronous

On a basic level it might be clear that these two words refer to opposing things and have something to do with time… but how does their meaning they apply to healthcare?

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How to Avoid No-Shows and Cancellations at Your Medical Practice

A full, consistent schedule is the bread and butter of any successful medical practice. Patients who miss their appointments, no-shows and last-minute cancellations can have a huge impact on your practice’s financial health. 

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How to Ensure HIPAA Compliance with Image Sharing in 2022

Sharing medical images in a HIPAA-noncompliant fashion is a violation of patient privacy that can expose you to large fines and potentially criminal liability. But what exactly constitutes a HIPAA violation? In theory, the actions that constitute HIPAA violations are straightforward: sharing what's considered to be private health information (PHI) with someone who's not supposed to receive it.

But from this simple definition, HIPAA violations related to medical images in particular, can take many forms, including exposing a patient's medical images to a vendor who does not have a Business Associates Agreement (BAA), sharing images with a family member or spouse without the patient's written consent, losing a laptop computer or cell phone containing protected medical information, or even mailing a medical image to the wrong address.

This blog will present guidelines for remaining HIPAA compliant, sharing images, protecting patient privacy, and reducing your risk of violating HIPAA rules and regulations.

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8 Healthcare Recruitment Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Top Talent

In the wake of COVID-19, competition for clinical talent has never been more fierce. Health systems were already up against staffing shortages, high turnover rates, and an epidemic of provider burnout before the virus swept across the globe. After the pandemic, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) projects that physician shortage could be as high as 139,000 physicians by 2033, with an annual turnover rate of six to seven percent. 

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Does Medicaid Cover Second Opinions in 2022?

Second opinions are, in the words of many within the healthcare industry, essential in the case of critical illness and should be the right of every patient. Most insurance plans, including Medicare and Medicaid, cover or even require an in-person second opinion consultation with a specialist prior to treatment. Medicare even pays for a third opinion if the second opinion differs significantly from the first.

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What is a Remote Second Opinion (RSO)?

If you are like most practices, the words “virtual care” have become critical to your survival. With the changes the world has faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, facilities that once relied exclusively on in-person treatment have been forced to explore ways to meet their patients’ needs without always seeing them face-to-face. By 2021 and 2022, most practices have used telehealth software to enable a virtual meeting with a patient. These programs allow physicians to talk through simple issues with patients during a live video consultation. But what about complex cases, chronic issues, or complicated cancer diagnoses? What if your practice offers specialized care that requires an assessment of a patient’s case history?

Basic telehealth tech does not typically have an answer for these questions as the systems lack a comprehensive method for aggregating and presenting health information, especially for records like test results and radiology scans. It’s for these cases that your virtual care toolbox needs to include a method for Remote Second Opinions. But what is a Remote Second Opinion (RSO)?

Well, I’m glad you asked…

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Second Opinion Program: Should I do a Proof of Concept?

We work with hospitals, specialty programs, and insurance companies across the spectrum when it comes to the maturity of their second opinion programs. Some have well-established processes, while others are just getting off the ground. Regardless of where you are today, you might be asking yourself if it makes more sense to invest all at once in the people and software needed to run a successful program or if dipping your toes in the water with a Proof of Concept might be a better approach. We can help you answer this question.

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increase procedures with second opinion program

Can I Attract New Patients with Second Opinions?

Over the last few years, more and more research has been coming out showing the value to patients of receiving a second opinion for rare or complex diagnoses. In a now well-known study, 88% of patients referred to the Mayo Clinic's General Internal Medicine Division by outside physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and physicians from primary care practices received a new or refined diagnosis. Another study found that diagnostic errors affect 1 in 20 adults in the United States, representing a possible 12 million patients each year receiving a misdiagnosis. Still another study showed that receiving a second opinion improved the diagnostic error rate from over 50% to 26% in the model used. 

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use virtual care to improve patient satisfaction

Does Virtual Care Create a Better Experience for Patients?

When considering new programs for your hospital, it is important to prioritize improving the patient experience. There are a lot of initiatives that could achieve this goal, but leveraging the right technology to deliver care to patients regardless of their geographic location is an initiative that can not only increase your current patient satisfaction but also attract new patients to your organization.

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can i integrate my ehr or ris with my cloud pacs

Can my Cloud PACS Integrate with my Existing Systems?

Technology is an important element used to improve medical practice workflows. There are hundreds of different solutions intended to streamline the patient and physician experience. One of those solutions is the cloud PACS, which makes medical images accessible across devices, operating systems, and locations. This is a great solution for centralized image storage and easy access to critical medical images. However, medical practices often need access to more than just one solution to holistically manage patient care, which is where integrations come into play. 

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collect your medical records

Medical Records Requests: What to Expect

Whether you are looking to collect your medical records to switch doctors, get a second opinion, or to keep your own records, the process can be rather long and cumbersome. Records collection processes can vary drastically depending on the institution you are collecting from and the types of records you are seeking. Every institution has different processes, different request forms, and even different departments charged with record collection. This blog is meant to highlight the most common methods and hurdles we have found in the record collection process, it is by no means an exhaustive list and is only meant to introduce you to this process.  

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advice for cancer diagnosis

Advice For Newly Diagnosed Cancer Patients

Lisa Craine’s life changed forever in 2010 after she was diagnosed with stage IV cholangiocarcinoma, a type of rare cancer that forms in the bile duct and has less than 8,000 cases in the United States per year. Lisa was told originally that she had six months to live, but eleven years later she is cancer-free and using her experience to become a passionate advocate for cholangiocarcinoma research. She works as a patient coach and helps people navigate a cholangiocarcinoma diagnosis. Lisa shared her unique perspective and the top 2 things she would want current cancer patients to know.

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purview summer internship opportunities

My Summer Internship Experience

The summer going into senior year of college is generally considered to be a memorable one. For years the word summer meant a break from a full-time job as a student where many were able to enjoy the long, hot days outside or spending time with friends. Now at the cusp of a new chapter in my life summers are likely to look very different than what I am used to. Hopefully soon after graduation, I will be working somewhere truly making a difference in people’s lives which is how I felt at my Purview summer internship experience. During my ten weeks, I was able to work with an amazing group of people and learn so much along the way.

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is purview secure?

Are Purview Solutions Secure?

 

Purview’s solutions offer clients the possibility of accessing critical medical information remotely, from anywhere with an internet connection, at any time. The cloud-based solutions, Purview Image, and Expert View can be implemented in practices to store and manage both patient studies and patient cases, respectively. Because of the sensitive nature of the protected health information (or PHI) shared and stored in Purview solutions, we have implemented multiple safety and security measures to keep you and your patients safe. 

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what is the difference between horos and osirix

Horos vs. OsiriX: What's the Difference?

Horos and OsiriX are the top two medical image viewers for Apple computers. However, the products have different functionalities and work very differently in many respects. If you're looking for an alternative to your medical image viewing software, or are just interested in what's out there, here's what you need to know about the differences between the two.

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should I move my legacy dicom data to the cloud?

Should I Move Legacy DICOM Data To The Cloud?

Now that you are looking to move your practice to a cloud PACS, it is time to consider what you want to do with your legacy data. The medical records that you currently have in your practice need to be retained in accordance with your local jurisdiction's laws. Some doctors choose to just keep the legacy data on their workstations or where it was originally stored. Others consider options like migrating that data onto the cloud. While the choice to migrate data over to the cloud is personal, we have worked with a lot of clients who consider what to do with their legacy data and recommend considering the following before making your decision.

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How Can I Get a Second Opinion Without Traveling?

As a patient who may have recently received the news of a complex or life-threatening diagnosis, it can be extremely difficult to know what to do next. It is important to absorb as much guidance and knowledge as possible during this uncertain time, and seeking a second opinion is an important step in the process. 

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common problems when moving to cloud PACS

Common Problems When Changing from a Local to a Cloud PACS

Do you currently have a local PACS and looking to change over to a cloud PACS solution? As you start looking into different vendors and the solutions they offer, it is helpful to consider the types of issues you may encounter when transitioning over to a cloud-based PACS. Below is a list of the three most common problems organizations have encountered when transitioning from an onsite to cloud PACS. Though it is not meant to be an exhaustive list, it will help you begin to prepare for this shift.  

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is my telehealth program successful?

How Can I Measure the Success Of My Telehealth Program?

Success comes down to value. Value, ultimately, for your patients which can be translated into dollars and cents and happy customers. Given the many healthcare initiatives hospitals can proceed with, why choose second opinions? And if you do, how do you measure the success of that program? 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the value proposition of a virtual or ‘Digitally Enabled’ healthcare program was abundantly clear. Enabling patients and even healthcare workers to stay home when and where possible freed up essential space in hospitals and other facilities and reduced the risk of transmission.

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can i customize my cloud PACS software

Is Purview Image Customizable?

Can you customize cloud PACS software? Purview is designed to work out of the box, with minimal implementation and set-up required. However, the Purview Team understands that some workflows will require customizable features to truly streamline their practice. Below we elaborate on 3 examples of customizations readily available within the Purview Image platform. 

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is my cloud pacs secure

Can I Lose Medical Images in a Cloud PACS?

Is it possible for cloud PACS software to crash and lose all medical data? Before answering this question, it’s important to understand that no one can guarantee absolute security. An impenetrable system does not exist. However, you should consider the security measures in place from any PACS vendor that you are considering using to protect yourself and your patient's protected health information (PHI).

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access dicom from anywhere

How to Access DICOM Data From Multiple Locations

You likely landed on this blog because you need a more efficient way to share DICOM images between locations. Whether it's to expand your practice or merely increase efficiency, centralizing your images is a sure step towards streamlining your workflow. Read on to learn how each of your practice locations can access the same database.

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how can i collect and organize patient cases?

How Can I Manage Patient Cases More Effectively?

If you are reading this, you are likely engaged in an initiative to drive healthcare innovation forward. However, it's quite possible you have run into some challenges around how to handle the information that is required to get a full picture of a patient’s health and history. Without effective ways of managing health information, patients are unable to access the care that they need. So, how can we manage patient health information in an efficient way?

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what is the difference between account management and customer support?

Account Management vs Customer Support

Here at Purview, we take great pride in our client retention rate and our over 98% client satisfaction rate. Both our account management team and our customer support team are instrumental in fostering lasting relationships, but what is the difference between the two teams?

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How Can I View DICOM Images Remotely?

Due to the size of DICOM files, viewing medical images remotely can be difficult. In addition to the bulky file size, you must also be careful to keep your patient's e-PHI secure. Complexities aside, it is important for many modern practices to be able to access medical images remotely to avoid delaying appointments, procedures, or treatments. There are many options out there, but understanding the benefits and disadvantages is an important step in deciding which remote viewing method is best for you.

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is it legal to email medical records

Can You Email Medical Records?

For years, medical practices have been distributing patient records back and forth via email. So you may ask yourself, “if it's not broke, why fix it?” Well... it actually is broken. Apart from being an inefficient way to distribute large files, refusing to invest in a secure platform to send and receive sensitive data can cost your practice more than money.

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how can i start to offer online second opinions?

How Can I Start Offering Second Opinions?

Many healthcare institutions we work with have a goal of not only improving medical outcomes but also reaching more patients. If these are some of your priorities, you likely have explored formalizing a second opinion program to make it easier for patients to seek out your expertise. No matter where you are in the search for a program to expand your footprint, a valuable step would be to understand how you can launch a successful second opinion program. So, where should you start?

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How Much Does a Cloud PACS Cost?

While on-premises PACS continue to predominate many large institutions, more and more practices are considering a cloud alternative as their current PACS nears the end of its useful life. Typically, an on-premises PACS has a maximum useful life of somewhere in the range of five to ten years. If your PACS is older than 5 years, you may need to begin considering your budget for a new PACS. When you do, you might consider a cloud-based PACS as a potential replacement.

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How Much Should My Second Opinion Program Budget Be?

When determining your budget for a second opinion solution, it is important to think beyond just the technology investment. Use this blog to understand what factors can influence your program's overall cost from the clinical requirements to the marketing support you will need. While this list is not exhaustive, these factors are some common factors many of our clients have to consider when setting their budget.

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should I offer second opinions

5 Reasons to Start a Second Opinion Program

When most think of second opinions, they picture patients traveling to a physician following a serious or complex medical diagnosis. This method does work for many patients, but what about those for whom it doesn't work? There is a growing interest in seeking out medical opinions online, and many have found ways to help patients without ever meeting them in person.

Patient preferences are shaping the way that hospitals and specialists deliver care, but why should you invest in creating a program to deliver second opinions virtually? Let's discuss the most common reasons our clients have decided to create a structured program to meet the demands of patients seeking opinions online.

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3 Reasons You Should Charge Your Patients for Access to Their Medical Images

Many physicians we speak with think it is heresy to charge their patients for access to their own medical images. There are a host of good reasons they use in opposing our view: They say they don't want to "nickel and dime" their patients. Or, that they are focused on satisfying their patients and that this charge is a dissatisfier. We understand why they feel that way. But, we implore them to consider changing their opinion. Here’s why…

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how to enforce hospital brand with online second opinions

How Online Second Opinions Can Help You Harness Your Hospital's Brand

Patients today are less concerned with (and less bound to) your physical location than they are of the potential impact on their health. Consumer habits are changing, and healthcare is no exception. While patients may heed the recommendation from their primary care physician for specialized or emergency care, they are likely also serving themselves by doing internet-based research.

So, what happens when your hospital is not answering their questions? And what questions are your potential patients asking? The wholesale adoption of telehealth during the COVID pandemic exposed patients to the effectiveness and convenience of remote telehealth visits expanding the potential geography of their selected provider. In this article, we will explore how you can serve the patients who are searching for your services without requiring them to travel and how you can ultimately attract more brand authority in a crowded space.

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The Ultimate Guide to Getting a Second Opinion

When you're confronted with a complex or critical health care diagnosis, you may be scared or confused by the prognosis or treatment recommended. This is often the time patients seek another opinion. Generations ago, patients relied on their personal physicians to make all their healthcare-related decisions. But no single physician is infallible, and most decisions are better when scrutinized by another informed source.

As a patient, when and how do you go about getting a second opinion?

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how are remote second opinions reimbursed?

How to Get Paid for Remote Expert Opinions

There is a growing list of hospitals adopting online or remote second opinions (RSOs). Second opinions, in general, are becoming more accepted by both patients and physicians, and telemedicine or remote medical encounters are becoming increasingly popular. This has led patients who are diagnosed with critical medical issues to seek ways to avail themselves of specialty medical knowledge and experience from providers that are not necessarily local to them.

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Connection to Core Systems for Remote Second Opinion Programs

Many hospitals that are completing the early stages of adoption of remote second opinion (RSO) systems may now be thinking through the integration of this system with their downstream systems. Most of the work performed by RSOs is intentionally performed outside of the hospital's EHR, PACS, pathology, or other electronic clinical records storage systems. However, should a patient that receives a remote second opinion visit the hospital for a procedure or inpatient visit, these records will need to become part of the hospital's permanent patient file.

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How Can I Share My Patients' Medical Records for a Second Opinion?

Innovative healthcare technology is changing how care is delivered for patients worldwide, particularly within specialty care. Expertise and other services can be exchanged far beyond the physical walls of the institution. Physicians with their own practices and rural hospitals that may not have certain specialists attending full time still need to be able to ensure that their patients can be seen, remotely or otherwise, by a specialist who can lend their expertise. Even in practices that may have a specialist in their particular diagnosis, patients are increasingly seeking out second opinions from physicians all over the world to confirm their diagnosis or get a new perspective. However, how can we ensure that the receiving physician has all of the information necessary to provide a thorough and accurate diagnosis regardless of whether they physically see the patient or not?

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build vs buy enterprise medical software

Build vs Buy: Enterprise Medical Software

It may be appealing for a healthcare organization to consider writing their own enterprise medical software to specifically meet their unique needs. Commercial software is generally written to serve the more general demands of the healthcare industry and often doesn’t address the nuances of each particular organizations' operations. This makes it attractive to the in-house team to believe that it uniquely understands these peculiarities and dive head-first into the deep end to begin to code.

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improve medical records exchange for patient transfers to save lives

Strategies for Improving Medical Record Exchange for Patient Transfer

Transferring patients between hospitals is a common occurrence at community hospitals and tertiary care facilities. Although not enough is known about the burden this puts on our healthcare system, it has been estimated that 1.6 million inpatients originated at another facility,1 including 1.5% of all admitted Medicare patients.Despite the high volume of patient transfers, there is no structured way to ensure that the patients medical records arrive along with them to the receiving institution. This has posed significant, and even life threatening outcomes, but is there a solution?

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Which telehealth services should my organization offer?

Which Telehealth Services Should My Organization be Offering?

It’s no surprise that the current global pandemic has accelerated telehealth’s adoption. More and more patients are looking to manage their care remotely and early indications point to the increased use of telehealth services being here to stay even after economies reopen. That said, you might find yourself asking, “which telehealth services should my organization be offering?”

It’s a fair question considering the various options that exist in the market but we hope to be able to provide some guidance below.

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aggregate medical records with your existing intake software

How Can I Aggregate Medical Records Within My Patient Intake Software?

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
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do I need an administrator for remote second opinions?

Should I Hire an Administrator for Remote Second Opinions (RSOs)?

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? 

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how can i obtain my loved one's medical records?

How Do I Obtain My Loved One's Medical Records?

There are a multitude of reasons you may need access to your loved one's medical records. Regardless of the reason, you're likely asking yourself at least one of the following questions: How can I obtain my loved one's medical records? Who has the right to my loved one's medical records? How can I obtain and store my loved one's medical records?

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collect medical records before a clinical trial

How to Collect Your Medical Records for a Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are the way that most new treatments are tested for initial efficacy and are becoming much more public in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you are sick, having easy access to your medical records is important for a multitude of reasons. But if an appealing or selective trial opens up, having your records available and organized prior to joining a clinical trial could save you time and stress and help you secure a spot in the trial. Even if you are not sick, in order to join a trial, you will likely be required to produce an extensive set of your medical records.

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How Can Patients Send Physicians an Existing Pathology Report?

Suppose that a patient is seeking a second opinion from a specialist in Texas for their recent cancer diagnosis. The patient resides on the East Coast of the United States and is unable or uncomfortable traveling. To properly confirm and address the diagnosis, the physician in Texas needs to see the patient's full medical history, including pathology. Unfortunately, sending the pathology report through the mail is costly and wastes valuable time, and also runs the risk of getting lost or damaged in transit. Not to mention, digital pathology slides are so large they will not fit on a DVD for sending.

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2020 Roundup - Ten Healthcare Trends That We Believe are Here to Stay

While we are still reeling from the onslaught of the pandemic, it is useful to reflect on and investigate some of the occurrences that will pave the way for healthcare in the coming years. Even if it wanes with the current delivery of multiple vaccination candidates, COVID-19 has made an indelible mark on our healthcare system.

Here are ten of the most important trends that we expect to emerge or gain traction in 2021, as the veil of COVID-19 is pulled back.

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remote second opinions for cholangiocarcinoma

Looking For a Charity to Support this #GivingTuesday? Look No Further

While Thanksgiving may have looked different for many this year, one thing will not be canceled: #GivingTuesday. People are in need, some now more than ever. If you are looking for an opportunity to give this year, please consider donating to the Mike Shane Memorial Fund. We are shamelessly asking for donations to this charity specifically because it is close to our hearts here at Purview. 

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5 Things Imaging Centers Should Eliminate From Their Workflow

Currently, many imaging centers are losing revenue due to the volume decrease of elective procedures, dwindling insurance reimbursement, and the general lack of traffic due to the global pandemic. This has left many imaging centers trying to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive environment. We empathize with the larger issues that imaging centers are facing right now amidst the covid-19 pandemic, and we realize that many may not have the ability to lift their heads long enough to see where there is a leak in the boat. So we thought it may be helpful to highlight some common inefficiencies and ways that they can be resolved to save time and money so that imaging centers can focus on the larger issues that the healthcare industry is currently facing.

We understand that referring physicians are the lifeblood of an imaging center’s bottom line. The inefficiencies that can affect an imaging practice the greatest will be the source of the highest volume of traffic: referring physicians. Adjusting how imaging centers and referring physicians communicate can be a simple way to make an imaging center more efficient. Many referring physicians have specific ways of doing business, but may not realize how much time and money is wasted on the outdated methods. Let’s discuss some ways that imaging centers can increase efficiency as it relates to communicating with referring physicians.

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AnimalScan offers quality scans for their patients

AnimalScan: A Journey to Becoming Experts in Animal Imaging

AnimalScan is a leading provider of animal imaging services in the US. Their branded outpatient imaging centers, located on both coasts, are fully equipped diagnostic facilities that contain the most advanced scanning equipment. They are the leader when it comes to animal MRI with each center staffed with a team of experienced radiologists, technologists, and anesthesiologists. AnimalScan also partners with specialty vets by leasing and servicing scanners in their own locations and work directly with referring vets to source their off premises imaging needs. With a growing number of locations across the United States, professionals in the veterinary industry are becoming familiar with the AnimalScan name. However, not many people know the story of how AnimalScan originated.

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collect all patient records from various sources with Expert View

The Best Way to Collect Patient Records from Various Providers

Patient Record Disconnect

The last thing a patient needs when they are sick, is to have to scurry around and collect their medical records from the various providers who generated the patient’s medical records. Often these records can help to understand a disease progression that is critical for the patient’s treatment plan. But patient records often reside at various providers who store these in proprietary, incompatible and disconnected silos, often requiring the patient show up in person to receive a CD or printed paper copy. Without these records in hand, a patient’s diagnosis can be incorrect or incomplete. Expensive and sometimes uncomfortable tests may have to be performed again.

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3 Strategies for Imaging Practices to Grow in Times of COVID-19

We are all feeling the impact of COVID-19 on our lives as well as on our professions. Medical imaging practices are similarly being impacted. Unfortunately, much of the affect of this disease will have long-standing implications that will linger far beyond the containment of COVID-19. In order to survive and perhaps even grow in the new reality, imaging practices will need to make drastic adjustments in how they operate.

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Littrell Radiology provides timely chiropractic radiological reads

Littrell Radiology is a chiropractic radiology practice based in Wilton, Iowa that provides timely and detailed radiological interpretation services for physicians and their patients across the country. Tracey Littrell, the proprietor, has built strong relationships within the tight-knit community of chiropractic care while still dedicating time to teaching at Palmer College of Chiropractic for the past 20 years. Dr. Littrell enjoys teaching while her years in the classroom has enabled her to maintain lasting connections with her chiropractic students, many of whom end up requesting consults from her once they’ve established their own practices.

Dr. Littrell has extensive training beyond the chiropractic doctoral program. She holds several certifications well beyond the standard for her industry, including Diplomate of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (DIANM), and Diplomate of the American Chiropractic Board of Radiology (DACBR). The DACBR certificate is held by fewer than 350 people in the U.S. and requires an extensive residency and successful completion of 2 board examinations. 

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How Tungsten Medical Network Delivers on Quality and Service for ENT Practices

If you are an ENT subspecialist, you’ve probably heard of Tungsten Medical Network. If you haven’t, you probably should. Tungsten is a leading supplier of in-office CT scanners focused entirely on the ENT market. Everything Tungsten does is centered around quality; from the Morita scanners they sell to the white glove support they provide to all of their clients. 

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How Diagnostic Imaging is Safely Spreading the Word About Patient Access

As mentioned in an earlier blog, Diagnostic Imaging is taking steps to keep their patients safer and happier amid the COVID-19 pandemic by offering copies of their scans directly on their mobile phone. This helps their patients avoid waiting for copies of their scans burned to a CD after their radiology visit. An important aspect of the success of this new offering is spreading the word to patients while continuing to limit in-person interactions.

In order to support our partner in marketing Patient Access to their patients, we visited Diagnostic Imaging's office to provide marketing materials to spread the word without spreading germs! We created flyers, posters and reference cards for their staff to effortlessly communicate the value of Patient Access. 

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How South American Health Care Practices Continue to Work Safely During COVID-19

More than two million COVID-19 cases have been recorded and more than 100,000 people have died in Latin America according to the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. When it comes to healthcare, workers continue to man the front lines and do their best to serve their patients.

When COVID-19 first struck, Purview sprang into action. We offered one of our products, software for remote diagnostic image viewing, free of charge for healthcare workers around the globe. But healthcare goes beyond traditional doctors and patients, and for Purview this also includes forensics and veterinarians.

In Latin America, two of the organizations that adopted Purview Image during the pandemic were Abanimal Imágenes Diagnósticas in Bogatá, Columbia and Instituto de Radiología in São Paulo, Brazil.

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roi of telehealth remote second opinions

The ROI of Remote Second Opinions

The telehealth market is expected to multiply three-fold to $130.5 billion USD by 2025. The increase in demand has been propelled by consumer preferences but the catalyst for the rapid growth can be largely attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote Second Opinions are a particularly appropriate use of telemedicine, since much of the work is assembling and reviewing existing clinical data. If you’re not currently offering remote second opinions in your practice, now is a good time to consider getting started.


An important question when exploring the benefits of remote second opinions, other than your patients’ demand, is the potential for increasing your revenue. You need to be sure it’s worth your investment before committing, and we get that. In this post we will walk you through the costs associated with offering remote second opinions and the potential revenue to help you decide whether it is an investment that you want to make.

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Our Commitment to Customer Service

With immediate phone availability and email response times averaging less than 5 minutes, customer support and satisfaction are among Purview’s highest priorities. We understand healthcare presents a unique challenge to physicians and IT teams around the world. We strive to address these challenges with quick response times, high-level training, and strict satisfaction goals.

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How Patient Perspectives on Telehealth are Changing

As providers grapple with the question of whether telehealth services can provide sufficient care as a substitute for an in-person visit, the global telehealth market is moving forward with or without them. Projections expect the market to multiply by more than 3x by 2025 – to $130.5 billion. 

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth was being adopted at a snail's pace. Today, providers have had no choice but to adopt some form of remote communication with their patients in order to stay afloat. Although the pandemic was the catalyst, there have been many factors that have been slowly moving the healthcare industry toward telehealth, the greatest being patient demand.

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5 Steps to Offering Remote Second Opinions for Subspecialists

If you are licensed in a subspecialty, there is a strong likelihood that someone is seeking your opinion.  You won’t be surprised to hear that some subspecialties like Oncology, Cardiology and Neurology are always in demand. But plenty of others, including: dentistry, Orthopedics, ENT’s OBGYNs and others, are also finding demand for their services. You may be under the impression that this is a difficult and costly service to begin offering, but that just simply is not the case.

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How primary care physicians need to adapt to reach millennials

As a primary care physician (PCP), you may feel as though you are less at the forefront of healthcare than you once were. This may be due in part to younger generation's tendencies to opt for other options, but that doesn't need to be the case. Understanding these shifts in healthcare and the priorities of these generations, combined with implementation of certain technologies, can help you adapt.

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Spotlight: How do physicians use Telehealth during coronavirus?

Hi, my name is Kai Rivera, and I am the Project & Implementation Specialist at Purview.

Over the past month we have shared with you the free of charge services and products Purview is offering to help during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal is electronic Access, Collaboration and Sharing of medical records wherever necessary for any person or organization who may need it.

Now, we want to highlight a few of our existing customers who have used Purview's solutions to navigate the hurdles that COVID-19 has presented to their practice: 

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Should my subspecialist practice offer remote second opinions?

The trend had already begun, but the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has kicked it into overdrive.

Subspecialists are adopting telemedicine technology to provide their expertise to patients they never even meet. Sound exotic? It’s not. The Washington Post projects over 1 billion telehealth visits by the end of 2020. Subspecialists are finding a growing opportunity to expand their domain to patients who otherwise might not have this specialization available to them.

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Doctors offer second opinions remotely

Is my hospital prepared to offer remote second opinions?

Many hospitals that have relied solely on their brick and mortar facilities are now realizing that their physical location is only a part of the health care arsenal they can wield. While hospital facilities are valuable, rare and difficult to reproduce, they often limit their accessibility to those that are geographically local and sufficiently mobile to take advantage of an in-person visit. Beyond the physical structure, the most valuable asset that the hospital employs are its expert physicians. With the appropriate digital infrastructure, their expertise can be deployed well beyond the four walls of the facility.

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What does an effective second opinion service entail?

How can my hospital choose the best software for a remote or second opinion service?

In the post-COVID-19 world, most hospitals will be scrambling to reclaim the revenue they missed during the pandemic. Certainly, a good portion of normal operational revenue will revive as patients become more comfortable returning to the hospital for non-emergency conditions and delayed procedures. But making up for the losses arising during the pandemic will be a daunting task.

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Should hospitals offer a remote second opinion service?

Second opinions are becoming an important component for patient healthcare. A recent study by the Mayo Clinic identified that as many as 88 percent of second opinions either differ to refine the original patient diagnosis [1]. This occurs more often than not when the physician rendering the second opinion has specialized expertise in the field in question and has the benefit of careful review of the patient’s prior complete set of clinical data.

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Spotlight: How can physicians and veterinarians use Telehealth during coronavirus?

Spotlight: How can physicians and veterinarians use Telehealth during coronavirus?

Hi, my name is Kai Rivera, and I am the Project & Implementation Specialist at Purview.

Over the past month we have shared with you the free of charge services and products Purview is offering to help during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal is electronic Access, Collaboration and Sharing of medical records wherever necessary for any person or organization who may need it.

Now, we want to again highlight a few organizations who have taken us up on this offer, in order to continue to provide care to their communities: 

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Remote second opinion on patient cases

What telemedicine software is best for remote second opinions?

Hospitals and subspecialists are being called on, now more than ever, to provide their expertise to patients without an in -person face-to-face visit.  With the need for social distancing and stay at home orders, patients seeking second opinions are looking for the best medical expertise they can get without having to stray too far from home.

For patients in more rural areas or for more complex and critical cases, sometimes urban or even regional centers are where that expertise is more likely located. Traveling, sometimes long distances, to one of these facilities without first knowing whether they are ready and capable of treating that condition is often not advised. Instead, patients would prefer to communicate their case information in advance and only travel if the facility expects the visit to be advisable.

Hospitals seeking to expand their reach and perhaps even to increase revenue are heeding the call.  But to do so requires a solution that captures patients' clinical information, performs video consults and enables them to communicate with the patient, his or her referring physician and other health care experts both within ad outside of their own facility. Choosing which to use is a challenge.

Hospitals need to choose whether to acquire their own software to expose their unique expertise and brand to a larger audience or become a recipient for a third party network of specialists that refer cases to the hospital.  The decision usually comes down to whether the hospital wants to control its own process and outsource the administration of these cases or whether this service will be part of the hospitals core offering.

Below are some of the considerations for which approach to select.

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Purview free services during COVID19

How are providers using Purview's Telehealth services during coronavirus?

Hi, I’m Kai Rivera, Project & Implementation Specialist at Purview.

Last week we shared with you the free of charge services and products Purview is offering to help during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal is electronic Access, Collaboration and Sharing of medical records wherever necessary for any person or organization who may need it.

Now, we want to highlight a few organizations who have taken us up on this offer, in order to continue to provide care to their communities: 

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Doctors and patients can meet remotely through synchronous video conferencing within Purview's Expert View

What is telemedicine and what type is best for my organization?

PSA-  Purview is offering a number of solutions and services free of charge to aid with the coronavirus pandemic. Learn more about them here. 

In this series of blogs, Translating Healthcare, we will highlight and break down the meaning of phrases and terminology that are increasingly used, but not always widely understood, in healthcare today.

The words Telehealth and Telemedicine are showing up with increasing frequency on medical blogs, websites, and in the news. Since the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, you likely have even heard them directly from the mouths of healthcare providers, legislators and supporters.

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Providers increasingly adopt Telehealth services as a safe alternative to face-to-face visits during the time of the coronavirus pandemic

How has coronavirus changed Medicare coverage for Telehealth services?

As providers adopt Telehealth solutions as safe alternatives to in-person visits, many are wondering whether coverage for these services has changed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency in the US, the popularity of Telehealth – remote electronic communications between physicians, other healthcare providers and patients - had been somewhat limited. The limited use of electronic patient engagement was in large part due to restrictive reimbursement for those services by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS).

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Will Older patients use an app for medical image access?

Will Older Patients Use an App for Medical Image Access?

A concern we often hear from physicians who hesitate to adopt online imaging access is that their older patients won't be comfortable with digital healthcare tools. In reality, seniors are more engaged with digital devices than ever before thanks to the vast health, social, and safety benefits that these tools offer. An app will actually make it easier for your patients to keep track of their imaging and share their images with their healthcare provider team.

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is there an app for getting a copy of your medical images?

Is There A Mobile App To Access Patient Medical Imaging?

The short answer: YES! Health apps are increasingly becoming an integral part of healthcare, and luckily medical imaging is no exception. Today, patients use apps for everything from tracking their nutrition and exercise to making sure they take their medication on time. Now they can also easily access and share their medical images from the Patient Access app on their smartphones and tablets!

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patient shares medical image with physician from cell phone

Patients Can Share Medical Images Without Delays or Costs to Providers

How many times have you been glued to your phone or laptop, tracking an important package as it travels from the original location, through each stop, until it finally makes it to your door? You may have even made a point to be home all day in order to sign for it. Perhaps this package contained the newest iPhone, a Christmas gift you didn't want unknowingly intercepted by the intended recipient, or another valuable item you don't want stolen off of your front porch or lost in transit. Waiting for that package can feel like time is moving backwards. Imagine how your patients feel, already anxious about their medical issue, as they wait for a CD copy of their x-ray or CT scan to arrive by mail. There has to be a better way to deliver imaging to patients. In fact, there is.. and it doesn't have to cost your practice a dime.

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healthy man in red sweater happy about having online access to his medical images!

Improve Medical Outcomes with Online Patient Access to Medical Images

Patients know the digital trend is slowly but surely finding its way into the healthcare system. They now expect that every doctor’s appointment will end with a reminder to login to their provider’s Patient Portal, giving them access to view blood test results, basic physician’s notes and even the option to schedule another appointment or send their doctor a direct message. One key piece of information is often missing from this patient-facing platform: their medical images. 

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cds are obsolete for medical image delivery

3 Reasons Why CDs are Obsolete in Medical Imaging

 

Remember when transferring medical images meant giving a patient physical film

Medical images on film were physically carried when needed in another location for a second opinion or other medical attention. The patient or referring physician held the responsibility of returning the images to their originating location once they were no longer needed. This process was revolutionized by the compact disc (CD). A single disc could hold copies of multiple imaging studies, meaning the images didn’t have to be returned to the originating provider. The CD could be shared or transferred by mail or hand-delivery and another copy could be made, if needed. 

But today, CDs are a burden, rather than a blessing. They require expensive materials, labor and precious time, when a cloud-based alternative achieves the same purpose for a lower cost and less effort. It’s no question: CDs are obsolete in medical imaging.

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Access to Medical Images: Are You Meeting Your Patients' Expectations?

Today's unprecedented access to information has transformed how we, as consumers, make purchasing decisions. Whether it's a smaller purchase such as a new pair of shoes or a larger purchase like a new car, we no longer rely solely on carefully crafted marketing materials for product information.

Instead, we examine online reviews and request recommendations from our network of friends by tapping into social media. This information is instantly available through mobile devices and online platforms. The same is true for patients seeking healthcare:  they are more engaged than ever before and they expect a higher level of transparency and service from their providers, including easier access to their medical images and records.

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patient access to medical images essential for cholangiocarcinoma patients

Online Access to Medical Images Benefits Cholangiocarcinoma Patients

February is Cholangiocarcinoma Awareness Month, a time to highlight the rare liver disease that affects 1-2 people in 100,000 per year. We are highly aware of cholangiocarcinoma due to our friend and investor Mike Shane who passed away last year after a strong fight against this disease. In his memory, we established the Mike Shane Memorial Fund to help patients who have this diagnosis overcome financial barriers to getting a needed remote second opinion. Part of this effort involves making it as easy as possible for patients to get their medical information, including medical images, to the physician to review for a second opinion.

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Patients choose self-pay for online access to their medical images

Patients Prefer Self-Pay for Copies of Their Medical Images

Many physicians and healthcare providers don’t charge their patients for a copy of their medical images because they fear their patients’ reaction. Ironically, providing “free” CDs to their patients is actually causing more harm than good. Patients we’ve spoken with would prefer paying a small fee for online access, which is actually valuable to them, rather than receiving the burden accompanied by that free CD. Take this story for example…

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Hospitals need to provide online access to medical images instead of using CDs, an obsolete technology

Yale Researchers Warn Hospitals: Using CDs for Patient Image Delivery is 'Immediate Issue'

Hospitals waste thousands of dollars on inefficient patient imaging delivery by CDs. Why does this method prevail when hospitals could easily adopt a more efficient, less expensive, and even free, format that would better serve their patients?

Researchers at Yale University School of Medicine were left with the same question after evaluating patient imaging delivery in hospitals across the United States.

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should patients have access to their medical images?

Should Patients Have Access to Medical Images?

As a responsible physician, you may worry about the potential effects of giving your patients electronic access to their medical images. However, many of these fears aren’t justified by the facts. If you’re worried about the dangers of giving your patients access to their medical images, the following may help to put your mind at ease.

Let’s take a look at the risks and benefits of sharing medical images with patients:

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Deliver Patient Access to Medical Images Without Using CDs

Deliver Patient Access to Medical Images Without Using CDs

Savvy patients are demanding access to their medical information. They know that capturing this information at the point of treatment will save them time and aggravation should they need it in the future. This is more comprehensive than a simple collection of their medical history. They want copies of their radiology reports, pathology reports, diagnoses, prescriptions, electronic health records, and, of course, their medical imaging.

Your delivery of this information will impact your patients’ satisfaction, as well as your budget. How are you delivering your patients images today, and how can you improve this process? We have an answer for you.

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Smartphones are Changing the Way Patients Access Medical Images

Smartphones are modernizing the traditional medical imaging practice. Patients no longer leave their appointment carrying a CD, which will inevitably be lost or forgotten by the time they need it for their next appointment. Now, they simply login to their secure online portal and pull up their image whenever and wherever it's needed. For providers who are considering adopting this new method of imaging delivery, we have some thoughts for you.

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increase clinical trial efficiency

Four Steps for a More Efficient Clinical Trial

Clinical trials are a critical part of the development of medicine and treatments. In the United States, there are just under 400,000 clinical trials in progress at the time of this writing. However the clinical trial market is becoming increasingly saturated, with a smaller participant pool to recruit from. This causes many to cancel clinical trials before they even start, which can lead to a loss of money and time invested. So, how can you keep your clinical trial on track to ensure efficiency throughout?

In order to develop an efficient clinical trial, or make your current clinical trial more effective, you will need to consider the important steps necessary to execute the trial. We're going to take it back to the basics and cover some basic steps that are important for any clinical trial and discuss the ways in which those steps can be executed with supporting technology.

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3 Benefits of Giving Your Patients Self-Service Access to Mammograms

A breast cancer diagnosis can be terrifying. Depending upon the recommended treatment, many patients may want to get a second opinion from another subspecialist before proceeding. This process can be burdensome for everyone involved - you, your patient and the physician providing a second opinion - thanks to the antiquated method of sharing mammograms - gathering your information by mailing CDs or sending faxes (or, even worse - mailing the film itself!) 

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Take Ownership of Your Health: Ask Your Doctor for Your Mammograms

October marks the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. With one in eight women receiving a diagnosis in her lifetime (in the U.S.), there’s a high chance this disease has impacted you, if not by your own experience, perhaps through a friend or relative’s diagnosis. Early detection is the best way to stay ahead of this disease, and that involves taking ownership of your own health. Your first step is to ask for copies of your mammograms.

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Specialty Hospitals Expand Footprint by Serving Other Institutions

If you have a good brand, use it.

Major cities are often home to leading specialty hospitals. We think of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for cardiac care and Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City for cancer; brands that are recognizable around the world. The best physician-specialists are attracted to the best hospitals, bolstering their expertise.

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Nurse and doctor examining xray in hospital

How to Own Your Health Through Second Opinions

Note: When urgent treatment is required, it is important not to wait to receive a second opinion. If you have a medical emergency, please call 911 immediately.

Think about the last time you bought a car. If I were a betting woman, I would wager that you shopped around at many dealers, spoke with friends and family about your options, and gathered all the information you could before deciding on the vehicle that would hopefully transport you for years to come. As well you should – a purchase of that size is a big commitment.

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The Last Mile in Health Care

Health care is trying to keep up with the digital age, but unfortunately, it’s failing. Thanks to the internet, you can complete almost every essential life task online from ordering groceries, to buying movie tickets and paying bills. When it comes to transferring your medical records to a new physician, though, you frequently run into a technological dead end. Despite the patient portal and electronic health record (EHR) platforms available, there seems to be no easy and efficient way to deliver concise, relevant health information, including medical images, to the right place at the right time. It's clear that health care has a last mile problem.

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What's Wrong with US Health Care?

The U.S. spends more per capita and as a percentage of GDP on health care than any other country. However, it ranks 9th among comparable countries, well below the average, in terms of its amenable mortality, or the rate of deaths considered preventable by timely and effective care, and 12th in life expectancy. What factors contribute to these statistics and what is being done about it?

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Veterinary Cloud PACS for Sharing Images

Veterinarian? Here Are 3 Steps To Share Records With Specialists

Physicians treating humans are not the only ones that have a need to share images with specialists in a prompt manner. In fact, if you are a veterinary specialist reading this, you have probably endured a great deal of frustration with people who feel that treatment for animals is not as much a time sensitive priority as human healthcare treatment. Well, we are here to tell you that we care about animals just as much as you and agree that sharing important life saving images should not be a time-consuming process. Here are three easy steps to start expediting things right away...

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How Providers Can Get Comfortable Charging Patients for Copies of Their Medical Images

With limited exceptions, the HIPAA Privacy Rule gives patients and their legal representatives the right to receive copies of their health records, including medical images. Most patients still receive their images on a CD or DVD, incurring substantial costs for the provider. Although the HIPAA Privacy Rule clearly permits providers to charge a reasonable, cost-based fee to help cover the expense, many providers hesitate to do so, fearing their patients will feel like they are being nickel and dimed.

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How Your Medical Practice Can Avoid Burning CDs

Ugh…burning medical imaging CDs for patients…

With all of the advances we have with internet connectivity and technology, why is burning a compact disc still the most popular way to store and share patient’s medical images?

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Teaching with Medical Images: Delivering a Deeper Learning Experience

In healthcare, as in life, no textbook lesson can provide the depth of learning that a real experience can. With today’s technology, educators can provide their students with a deeper, more realistic learning experience, especially in regards to using and studying medical imaging. Educators and students alike now have greater flexibility and a wider variety of resources available to them with the evolution of cloud-based medical imaging software. The innovative educators utilizing this technology can more easily prepare their lessons and analyze their students’ progress; not to mention, students are better equipped with the tools and experience required for their future professions.

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Modality Vendors Find an Incremental Profit Opportunity With Purview’s Cloud

Modality vendors often face a common challenge during the sales process: their devices are too large to bring to a prospect’s office for a demonstration. Even if they did, the setup and safety of temporarily operating the device for this purpose is beyond reason in just about every situation. So how does the modality vendor, especially one generating high resolution images in multiple dimensions, show off the capabilities of their device to a prospective customer?

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Support

Using Purview for Radiology Modality Tech Support

Purview’s solutions can be used in a variety of ways, as we’ve seen with many of our customers. Recently, one of our newest clients came up with an innovative use for Purview’s cloud-based platform. This international-scale medical imaging modality vendor, which serves veterinarians and physicians, was seeking a way to increase the productivity of their service technicians (techs) and reduce wasted time and resources.

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Righttime

How an Urgent Care Chain Improved their Business by Providing Patient Access to Medical Images

Righttime Medical Care provides urgent care for patients through more than 17 locations throughout Maryland, as well as through telehealth services. Frequently, patients visiting a Righttime facility require an x-ray of an extremity such as a potentially fractured wrist or a broken ankle. Righttime operates a mini C-arm to capture these images and can provide a copy to the patient so he or she can then take the image to their physician or a specialist for further treatment. For years, Righttime delivered these images to patients as printed film. “The radiologists hated us for sending that over because they couldn’t see enough to make a diagnosis,” said Dr. Robert Graw, CEO and founder of Righttime Medical Care, during a webinar with Purview.

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Buying a PACS? Here Are 6 Things It Should Include.

If you run a private practice that uses medical imaging technology in some way, shape or form, you may be confused by the variety of picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) offerings. A PACS can bring multiple benefits to any medical practice, including: simplifying the storage, offering a resilient backup strategy, and efficiently sharing medical images. Determining what is right for you, can be a daunting task. When shopping, however, you need to think about more than just cost. In our experience, the following are critical considerations before investing in any PACS.

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EmpoweredPatients

Why You Should Provide Better Patient Access to Medical Images

The battleground of today’s business world revolves around the customer experience. Whether you are selling cars, cheeseburgers, or radiological services, the 21st century customer demands to be treated with respect and warmth. Accordingly, in nearly all industries, the customer experience is gaining sharpened attention. Specifically, customers demand information transparency and this trend is only growing, especially for millennial consumers. Most customers understand that information is power and that knowledge drives effective decision making. People can access their financial data in two clicks and a swipe on their smartphones. Similarly, most companies are becoming transparent and providing patients access to their information anytime and anywhere.

Why, then, do patients still find difficulty accessing their medical information?

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Carly Summer Intern blog - Summer 2018 - III

My Summer Internship at Purview

Carly Cherches, a senior at Union College, reflects on her summer 2018 internship as an inbound marketing intern with Purview. Carly will graduate in Spring 2019 with a degree in biomedical engineering.

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Radiology Reports with Key Images Improve Communication

A standard radiology report is a useful way to capture and succinctly communicate the results of most imaging scans, including X-rays, CT scans and MRIs. Whether in human health or veterinarian care, this summary of the identified condition and diagnosis is a critical communication tool between the radiologist and the treating physician or patient. While radiology reports are traditionally comprised of text, reports with key images improve communication by providing a new layer of depth and understanding for physicians and their patients.

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Purview Establishes Medical Image Cloud In Australia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Annapolis, Maryland - September 8, 2018 – Purview announced today its Australia-based cloud is now available for commercial use, enabling the securestorage, archive, access and sharing of medical images within the country. By establishing cloud storage via a datacenter in Sydney, private health information stored with Purview complies fully with The Federal Privacy Act 1988, as amended by the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 and its Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), as well as State and Territory storage requirements. With this compliance, Purview is able to host private medical data of Australian patients, providing healthcare professionals with greater mobility and better storage and accessibility.

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