NGI goes live at UPMC Jameson, launches pilot at Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh

The NGI team celebrated a significant event in early 2018 with a rollout of the imaging platform at UPMC Jameson – the first hospital to go-live on a platform that represents the next generation of digital imaging for the health care industry.

In addition to implementing the NGI platform at five Jameson sites in February, the team – operating under a joint development agreement between UPMC and GE Healthcare – launched a pilot of a cloud-based image transfer system at Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh that is saving time and money.

Utilizing GE Healthcare’s Case Exchange, a product within the Centricity Imaging Collaboration Suite, the cloud system eliminates the need to burn images onto discs and transport them by car from Children’s Institute to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, where they are read by radiologists.

In the first six weeks of the pilot, 72 miles and 9 hours of driving were cut, said Stacy Norman, product manager for NGI. The team is preparing to launch six additional Case Exchange pilot projects in the coming months.

Single repository streamlines work flow

Meanwhile, at UPMC Jameson nearly five years of work culminated in the rollout of NGI for seven radiologists interpreting patient cases from 40 modalities. Featuring a single image repository across 2D and 3D studies, Centricity Universal Viewer intuitively brings together the tools needed by radiologists, cardiologists and other clinicians to provide enterprise-wide access on a single desktop. The single repository means clinicians will no longer need to move between 13 different imaging vaults to compile a patient’s full imaging history.

The advances are aimed at building a system that focuses on improved outcomes by streamlining information and communication for caregivers and creating a better experience for patients and medical staff. 

Future expansion planned

While the rollout at Jameson was a major achievement, the team won’t catch much of a breather before embarking on a UPMC-wide deployment over the next several years.

During the rest of 2018, the team will be implementing the platform at several of UPMC’s community facilities, including those in McKeesport and Monroeville. In 2019, the deployment plan calls for many of the hospitals outside Pittsburgh, such as Chautauqua, Horizon, Northwest and Hamot, to begin using NGI. By the end of 2020, all UPMC’s hospitals are projected to be on the new imaging platform.

“I want thank everyone, current and former NGI members, for their dedicated work and support to help us achieve this important milestone on the program. We have come a long way and have more to come as we roll out NGI across UPMC,” Senior Program Manager Bruce Gay said.

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