Resource Centre - Radiology Module

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Video Tutorial


The Radiology module provides a list of the patient’s radiology studies and allows you to view diagnostic reports and images. Radiology images and reports are integrated from the Southwestern Ontario Diagnostic Imaging Network (SWODIN) and Ontario Health’s DI Common Service (DI-CS). Supported browsers: Internet Explorer 10+, Safari 6.0+, Google Chrome 20+ and Firefox 14+

New Result Indicators 

If New Results are available, this module will be flagged  Image of radiology notification (Refer to New Results Module & Indicators for more details about new result settings).  

a tip icon  Reports from DI-CS and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton currently, will not generate a new results flag in the Radiology module.

Diagnostic Imaging (DI) Common Service

ClinicalConnect users at participating organizations that have completed the necessary agreements with Ontario Health will have access to diagnostic imaging reports and images from Ontario Health's DI Common Service. This includes studies conducted at hospitals outside south west Ontario and by certain community-based diagnostic imaging centres from across the province. 

The DI Common Services reports already available from hospitals outside of South West Ontario in the Radiology module will now include the corresponding diagnostic images and will display the camera icon   beside the report line item as shown in the image below. 

A list of hospitals and independent health facilities that contribute data to the DI Common Service is available from the Ontario Health site: https://ehealthontario.on.ca/connectingontario-data-summary/DICS_data_summary.html.

 Provincial repositories such as DI Common Services retrieve information based on the patient’s Health Card Number (HCN) match. In cases where a HCN is not available or invalid, data from the provincial repositories will not be accessible.

 

DI Common Service Reports and Images

Radiology reports and images display in a sortable list and will include reports and images from the provincial repository as shown below.  

 

Types of Radiology Viewers

Radiology images display using the following viewers:

  • GE Centricity Universal Zero Footprint (ZFP) Viewer - for SWODIN images contributed by all hospitals.
  • Agfa XERO viewer - for images from DI Common Service. 

Please refer to the reference guides below for more detailed information:

SWODIN Images - GE Centricity Universal Zero Footprint (ZFP) Viewer

The GE Centricity Universal Zero Footprint (ZFP) Viewer is used to view all SWODIN images and is approved for diagnostic use. 

The complete GE Centricity Universal Zero Footprint (ZFP) Viewer guide can be access from the viewer’s Help icon . 

A quick reference guide is available from the following link: Radiology Image Viewer: GE Centricity ZFP Quick Reference Guide https://info.clinicalconnect.ca/CC/storage/documents/Quick guide ZFP viewer V6.0 S1.1.pdf

Ontario Health’s  DI Common Service viewer : Agfa XERO Reference Guide

Radiology images from Ontario Health’s Diagnostic Imaging Common Service (DI-CS) repository use the Agfa XERO viewer. By default, all users are configured to use the viewer as a reference viewer and is not approved for diagnostic use.  Full fidelity viewing is available only with the validated platforms and devices indicated as Full fidelity viewing in the Supported Browsers section of the Agfa XERO help function.

NOTE: The viewer is not intended for the display of digital mammography images for diagnosis.

If you attempt to view images in full fidelity mode using an unvalidated platform, an Unvalidated platform warning is displayed  . You must either accept or decline the warning before continuing.

To access the AFGA help function and the technical specification resources, click on the Help, located at the top the screen as shown below. If you would like to learn more about using Agfa XERO, use the Quick Start Guide.

 

 

DI Common Service and Consent Directive

A patient has the right to withdraw consent to access and use of their full or partial records from DI Common Service through the current Ontario Health process. ClinicalConnect will honour consent restrictions and display the following message in the patient’s ClinicalConnect record: 

There is a consent directive in place for the selected patient

Clinicians may contact Ontario Health's Service Desk Support at 1-866-250-1554 or email at OH-servicedesk@ontariohealth.ca.

Image of the radiology module tab

The following table provides a summary of some of the key features of the Radiology module.

Preference Description

Smart Filter

The Smart Filter is used to narrow down the list of radiology results to display only those related to the text you entered in the filter. 

Example: 

ct hhs is entered in the Smart Filter box. The Smart Filter searches the Radiology List grid for any row that contains text that begins with both ct AND hhs. All other orders are filtered out and do not display in the view. 

Only one result was found for a CT Abdomen from HHS.

image of the radiology module header

a tip icon  See the Smart Filter section to learn more about filtering results and lists with the Smart Filter tool.

Encounter Type

The Encounter Type filter is available in select modules and by default, is set to All Regional Encounters in order to view data from provincial repositories.

Options include: 

  • Encounter - Displays information only for the selected encounter or visit.
  • Patient - Displays all information from all Patient encounters from that source hospital system only.
  • All Regional Encounters - Displays data from provincial repositories or all visits across all hospitals available in the portal.

Days Back

The Days Back filter refers to the amount of information presented in the view based on the number of days back from the date of patient discharge. For an admitted in-patient, the Days Back filter refers to the number of days back from the current date (today).

a note icon The Days Back filter in this module is set to 180 days as the default but can be changed to a maximum of ALL. However, the ALL Days Back setting may impact system performance if returning large volumes of data.

Make sure that your Days back is set appropriately to include the available data in that date range. Example: If you’re looking for a result that was completed two weeks ago, and the Days Back is set to 7 days, then you will not be able to see that result.

Image Icon

image icon

Reports with images will have an Images icon image icon displayed in the first column. Clicking the camera icon launches the image in a new browser window.

 

Viewing Radiology Details

Radiology results are displayed in a sortable list. Click the row of the result you want to view to see the report details. 

image of viewing the radilogy module details

Depending on your preference settings, the Radiology Details will either show up to the right of the results list or below the results list. 

 

Printing Radiology Results and Details

 Printing from some ClinicalConnect modules creates a PDF document which indicates that you have generated a medical document which should be treated as confidential. The page is watermarked with the ClinicalConnect logo and identifies your name, the date, and time the document was generated.

To print Radiology results or details:

1. Click the Print button print button found in the Radiology header or details window of the screen you want to print.

2. Use your browser’s document viewer to complete the printing process.

image of the print preview of the document that needs to be printed

Printing options vary depending on browser and location. Check with your technology team if you’re having issues printing information from ClinicalConnect. Adobe Reader 10.1.4 or higher is recommended to view records presented as PDFs in ClinicalConnect. 

 

Viewing Radiology Images

 a note icon Images may not be available for all reports presented in the module list and do not display the camera icon. SWODIN images need to be launched outside of Citrix in some corporate environments that do not support a compatible browser.

To view radiology images:

1. Click the camera icon 

Image icon in right column of the page

2. A new browser window or tab will display the imaging in the viewer window.

a radiology image

 

Grouped Multiple Images 

In some cases, source hospital systems that contribute radiology images may have grouped multiple images from multiple exams (including multiple exam types) under one exam if those exams were completed on the same day. Each exam will be listed in the Radiology module with a camera icon but may not contain the associated exam image. 

Example: Nuclear Medicine Studies

Click the thumbnail of the desired image series. (SC prefix mnemonic indicates screen capture)

 

It is recommended to look for other reports from the same day and launch the camera icon to review the grouped images: 

Example:

  1. Enter the date of the exam in the Radiology Smart Filter text box using the DD/MM/YYYY format. All results from that day are displayed in the Radiology results list.
  2. Click each camera icon to view image results until you find the images you were looking for.

Image showing grouped image icons

 

 

Radiology Preferences

The Radiology module has it’s own set of preferences that can be accessed and configured by clicking the Preferences button preferences button in the module header or by using the Preference Setup Wizard.

image of the preferences tab

After updating your preference settings, click the Save & Apply button to save your changes.

To learn more about the various preference setting options, please visit the Common Preference Settings in ClinicalConnect section.