Nuance Communications announced the launch of its PowerShare Network, a cloud-based network for securely connecting physicians, patients, government agencies, specialty medical societies and others to share essential medical images and reports.
The PowerShare Network is aimed at promoting informed and connected physicians and patients that can view, share and collaborate while addressing patients’ health care needs.
“The challenge of sharing images with interpretive reports is something we’ve heard about consistently from our customers and EHR partners,” Peter Durlach, senior vice president of marketing and strategy at Nuance, said in a statement. “This nationwide network, one that is fully integrated into the EHR workflow and already connected to approximately half of all clinicians producing diagnostic imaging information, is a ground-breaking solution that delivers immediate benefits at an unprecedented scale to our health care system.”
Anyone can join the network regardless of IT systems in place to view and manage images needed to consult, diagnose or treat patients. The platform is already used by more than 1,900 provider organizations for sharing images through the cloud using open standards.
Health care organizations that use the company’s PowerScribe platform can begin sharing radiology reports along with images, such as X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, EKGs, wound care images, dermatology images or any other type of image.
“Organizations are being tasked to communicate efficiently both in and out of their networks to provide clinical insight to physicians beyond one person or office to a much broader team involved in the continuum of care,” Keith Dreyer, vice chairman of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Chair of the American College of Radiology (ACR) IT and Informatics Committee, said in a statement. “Nuance PowerShare Network addresses the information-sharing challenge physicians face today with a network that supports things we’ve dreamed of doing for years.”
Made possible through the acquisition of Accelarad, this medical imaging exchange helps reduce the process of managing images on CDs and works to remove silos of information in health care that can inhibit providers from optimizing the efficiency and quality of care they provide.
“Whether at their desktop or on their mobile device, our physicians can see the study that was done along with the interpretive report, which provides the information they need to treat the patient and avoid duplicate testing,” Deborah Gash, vice president and chief information officer at St. Luke’s Health System in Kansas City, said in a statement. “By integrating this with our EHR, PowerShare will enable physicians to manage inbound imaging through one point of access and login.”