Enterprise Imaging Helps Decrease the Cognitive Burden, Says Rob Bart, MD, CMIO, UPMC

In this interview with healthsystemCIO, Dr. Rob Bart, CMIO at UPMC, discusses the challenges and opportunities of moving towards an enterprise imaging environment. UPMC’s strategy involves consolidating various PACS, and then moving those images to a Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) to ensure they’re readily available for patient care. While the technology exists, the real challenge lies in managing change and gaining buy-in from clinicians. Read on to learn how UPMC is navigating this complex transformation to enhance care delivery and patient experience.

Watch or listen below; scroll down to read 



LISTEN HERE USING THE PLAYER BELOW OR SUBSCRIBE THROUGH YOUR FAVORITE PODCASTING SERVICE. 



Anthony: Welcome to healthsystemsCIO’s Interview with Dr. Rob Bart, CMIO at UPMC. I’m Anthony Guerra, Founder and Editor-in-Chief. Dr. Bart, thanks for joining me today.

Dr. Bart: Anthony, thanks for having me and asking me to join you this afternoon.

Anthony:  Today, we’re going to talk about Enterprise Imaging. We’re trying to bring some stories to light of people who are doing work in that area, maybe having some successes and working through some challenges. Please tell me a little bit about your organization and your role.

Dr. Bart: I’m the Chief Medical Information Officer here at UPMC. I am responsible for the functional use of any of the clinical systems here at UPMC. UPMC is both a healthcare delivery and a payor organization, about a 50-50 split in revenue. Approximately 28 billion this year, more than 40 hospitals, 700 acute care delivery sites, predominantly in the state of Pennsylvania with small outposts in western New York and western Maryland.

Anthony: Excellent. As I mentioned, what we want to talk about is Enterprise Imaging and push to make images more readily available to clinicians across different specialties and the Enterprise, we know this is an area that can be difficult for patients and clinicians to navigate.

Dr. Bart: Thanks, Anthony. Historically, when healthcare systems talk about Enterprise Imaging, they are predominantly referring to picture archive systems. They’re usually specific for radiology images, occasionally for cardiovascular imaging systems which are frequently centralized. The early definition certainly didn’t include the other specialties that handle diagnostic studies and/or interventional studies that also generate images. Whether its gastroenterology or pulmonary with bronchoscopy or pathology as it moves more and more into the digital world today.

As I think about Enterprise Imaging, it goes back to before I started at UPMC. When I started in the summer of 2017, I really thought about all the images that entail a patient’s imaging jacket, so to speak. If I reflect on the electronic health record world, one of the goals has been to create a single consolidated digital electronic record, that’s text based, of all the information on the care of a patient.

Conceptually, I’ve taken that same thought and applied it to creating a single imaging jacket.  A one for one relationship of that patient who is receiving care in the healthcare system and all of the digital images that are related to their care. From a consumer patient perspective, it should be as simple as going to one desk or making one phone call or one patient portal request to obtain a complete record that includes all the text-based documentation as well as all the images.  I don’t believe anyone achieves that easily or well.

A lot of people talk about information blocking as it relates to what is traditionally text-based documentation in the EHR.