Wounds, bed sores, skin conditions: everything in the PACS!

How do you objectively assess the changes in a wound?
The requirements of radiology departments, in terms of storage and disease monitoring, are well-known and have been studied for many years.  But what about the needs of clinicians? How can you objectively assess the changes in a wound or bed sore, or prepare for complex surgery? How do you reproduce photos of knocks and injuries seen by the accident and emergency department...two years later?

Did someone say DICOM?
Most PACS use images in DICOM format because they are standardised and  combine the image with the patient's personal information: name, unique identification number, and date of birth.
Telemis has been processing JPG images and videos in AVI format for over 10 years,. This widens the field of technological possibilities, moving towards a MACS system for all departments in the hospital.
But there has always been the challenge of linking the JPG image to the right patient; this is a potential source of error, especially when it comes to identifying the wounds of various patients. The game of "Guess Who?"  could soon turn into a nightmare.

Why is it difficult?
The main challenge lies in trying to match the picture unambiguously with the corresponding patient.
"Today, the vast majority of doctors use smartphones or tablets that can take high-quality photographs to illustrate and later compare medical facts," says Didier Cauchois, Information Systems and Operations Manager of the Oscar Lambret Regional Cancer Centre in Lille.
The difficult thing is to import a list of patients onto those portable devices and match them, as soon as the picture is taken, with the right study or the correct image. To achieve this amazing feat, Telemis has used its TM-Worklist solution to provide a hospital worklist that is not connected to the RIS, which is by definition linked to radiology. Depending on the particular HIS partners and on the hospital's patient file, the TM-Worklist is able to provide one worklist per doctor or per department, or a global one for the institution.
In parallel, Telemis has developed TM-Capture, a new solution able to retrieve investigation lists, create photos and send them to PACS/MACS, directly into the patient file, from an iOS or Android mobile device. This user-friendly solution requires no prior installation and the transfer takes place in just a few clicks.

But in practice: what does the clinician need to do?
The practitioner simply launches the TM-Capture tool on his/her smartphone or tablet, selects the patient from the personalised investigation list, and takes a picture of the condition that needs to be documented.  Once confirmed, the information entered is sent to PACS/MACS.
The images generated and transferred in this way are placed in the patient file on the institutional Telemis system, just like a radiology study.  It is very easy to search, view, and compare images using the usual Telemis tools.

An example?
The Oscar Lambret Centre in Lille will be the first site to use this new solution.