Our Open Source Diagnostic Systems Integration (ODiSI) service offers diagnostic providers powerful, flexible and cost-effective integration solutions aimed at increasing efficiency and throughput, reducing costs and improving patient outcomes.
ODiSI solutions are built on the solid Open Source foundations of the Mirth Connect integration engine, providing clients with unlimited messages, interfaces and throughput for connecting systems.
Healthshare engaged Applied Informatics to deliver a solution to automate diagnostic imaging requests and results information exchanges using Mirth Connect.
The challenge
Healthshare is a leading independent provider of musculoskeletal treatment, diagnostic imaging and physiotherapy services. Founded by a group of expert NHS clinicians, with a passion for empowering people to get the treatment they need, the way they want it, Healthshare has been a trusted partner of the NHS for over ten years, and the provider of choice for countless private patients.
Using internal expertise and assistance from vendors, Healthshare had attempted to integrate the Clinisys ICE Order Communication System (OCS) with the Soliton Radiology+ Radiology Information System (RIS). Clinisys ICE was used by GPs in two large geographic regions for processing of diagnostic imaging requests and results. Despite best endeavours, this resulted in only 25% of requests and results messages being delivered successfully, with time consuming, expensive and error-prone manual intervention required to ensure delivery and processing of the remaining messages.
What we did
An initial discovery period was performed to identify Healthshare's integration requirements. This involved identifying and understanding the business processes to be supported; the interface behaviour of each integrated system; and non-functional and infrastructure requirements to enable solution sizing and technical architecture design.
Through a series of iterations we then designed, developed and tested the integration solution within Mirth Connect including core capabilities such as enhanced alerting, database backup and message logging. We assisted Healthshare in designing and performing successful user acceptance testing, prior to setting up and deploying the integration solution seamlessly to the live environment.
Finally, we provided a period of solution aftercare to support live operation of the integration solution prior to final handover to Healthshare.
Customer feedback
“The solution that Applied Informatics recommended, architected, developed, tested, and delivered to Healthshare has fully automated the ordering, updating and resulting IT systems across the two largest diagnostics patches in which we work. The solution successfully processes many thousands of messages a day, relentlessly delivering reliability and efficiency benefits throughout, all in a way that matches precisely the nuances of our business requirements. Furthermore, the solution is also a platform for further development – as business or clinical rules and realities evolve, the solution can be developed to match such changes.”Tom Chivers, IT Applications and Data Lead at Healthshare
Our impact
We successfully integrated Clinisys ICE and Soliton Radiology+ using Mirth Connect. Messages now flow freely between the two systems, with enhanced alerting and message logging solutions identifying, and enabling troubleshooting of, the unlikely occasions when exceptions occur.
Due to the deployment of our integration solution, Healthshare report:
- An increase in GPs signing up for their Radiology services. Where GPs were previously creating ad-hoc referrals or sending requests directly to NHS Trusts, they have now signed up for electronic requesting via the ICE solution. This has enabled Healthshare to gain an established presence in those geographic regions.
- The ability to extend Healthshare's services and tests offered due to the flexibility of the solution.
- De-risking of information exchanges due to improved patient matching and removal of typos etc.
- Improved operational, software and hardware performance due to the removal of processes that were previously impacted by the use of PDF files.
Relevant services
- Requirements management - to capture, organise, understand and report on user and system requirements for an organisation.
- Business Analysis & Process Design - to help model, analyse and determine an organisation's business needs and goals.
- Integration Architecture & Design - to help organisations create seamless business processes and user-facing digital services.
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