DICOM Images Are a Data Gold Mine
DICOM stands for Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine. It is an international standard related to the exchange, storage and communication of digital medical images and other related digital data. A DICOM image can be made up from many different types of data, including:
- Patient Administration Information
- Waveforms
- Images
- Slices of 3-D Volumes
- Video Segments
- Diagnostic Reports
- Graphics
- Text Annotations
These examples could all be valuable additions to data analytics and yet this information is currently going underutilized. The main two reasons for this are that the information is deeply sensitive and heavily regulated, and that it is unstructured data which has traditionally been difficult to process.
OmniIndex’s patented fully homomorphic encryption and search technology enables access to this information without compromising patient confidentiality. The technology means that data is kept secure and private, while also being accessible to analytics.
An example of how analytics of encrypted DICOM images can be valuable to healthcare practices can be found with device utilization.
This is an incredibly valuable pool of data because medical imaging equipment is both very expensive, and heavily relied upon. It is therefore imperative that the machines are being used efficiently. Analytics of DICOM images means being able to see what types of scans have been performed by which machines. From this it is possible to see if any machines are not being used as much as others – potentially highlighting an issue with that machine or the workflow of the healthcare practice (or indeed both). What’s more, healthcare practices can also produce reports based on an individual patient to see what scans were carried out on what machines and when. Such a report could be used as part of patient administration and for billing reconciliation to ensure the process is transparent for patients with accurate and clear reports available when needed.
To learn more, feel free to get in touch today to discuss your needs and The OmniIndex solution.