UK tech SME partners with a major NHS England hospital to forge a medical photography capture and retrieval solution for the sector
Maidenhead, UK – August 27, 2014 –SynApps Solutions, the content management specialist, has today announced a new medical capture and retrieval solution to address the prevalence of unmanaged medical photographs in hospitals.
The innovative new solution also offers extensive and Backed up, Accessible/Searchable, Secure and Indexed photography functionality linked to a unified patient record to enhance patient care and minimise a Trust’s legal and financial risk. The solution was created in partnership with a large NHS England Trust.
The medical care context
For patient safety and legal reasons, Trusts need to take external photographs of patients, e.g. bed sores, bruising, rashes. Prior to recent budget cuts there would have been a dedicated department responsible for the task. However, these days, ward sisters use digital cameras but without a process and technology to support them.
As a result there is insufficient control or management of these images – some institutions will have the patient and hospital id included, but there is a wide gap in standard approaches. Meanwhile, such images are rarely backed up and there is no link to other hospitals and systems, while for videos of operations and medical procedures, there is a similar inconsistent approach across the sector.
The ConXPhoto system from SynApps Solutions addresses these issues by using a wi-fi enabled memory card that captures the photo or video and downloads it on to a network drive so it’s adequately backed up. It then validates the clinical info associated with the media by performing a look up on the hospital admin system so that when it files in the VNA (Vendor Neutral Archive), the hospital and patient ID are accurate.
An interface to enter details is also provided in ConXPhoto, while thumbnails of photos and a lightbox for video is also available, allowing users to pick, index and save desired final images to the VNA.
ConXPhoto can work with any Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS).
“Until now, there really was no viable solution that would help address the proliferation of unmanaged photography produced by hospitals across the UK and therefore minimise the storage and administrative difficulties this is starting to create for the NHS,” commented Mark Winstone, Sales & Marketing Director at SynApps.
“We’re excited to introduce today our ConXPhoto software that completely automates this process – allowing hospitals to enhance patient care and improve governance at the same time,” Winstone added.
About SynApps
SynApps is an independent UK-headquartered services and solutions company specialising in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) technologies. Founded in 2003 by former Documentum services professionals, the company provides consultancy, implementation and support services for EMC Documentum, and has authored a suite of content integration solutions, ConXApps, that allow businesses to quickly maximise their investment in ECM technologies. Organisations across healthcare, government and commercial markets rely on SynApps solutions and services to capture and share knowledge more dynamically and efficiently.
Find out more at synapps-solutions.com, or follow the firm on Twitter @SynappsSol