ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates a real-world case study in radiology practices using a back-end relational database and a front-end ASP.NET solution to evaluate imaging exam equipment utilization.
Health information technology (HIT) consists of a diverse set of technologies for securely transmitting and managing health information for use by consumers, providers, the government, and quality entities and insurers. It includes the capture, storage, use, and transmission of health information through electronic processes and has increasingly become the most promising tool for improving the overall quality, safety, and efficiency of the health delivery system (Wu et al., 2006). A typical HIT system is composed of Patient Registries, Accounting/Practice Management System, Computerized Physician Order Entry with Clinical Decision Support, ePrescribing, Electronic Health Records, Patient Health Records, Appointment Scheduling, Telemedicine, Radiology Information System (RIS), and Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), to name just a few. Various sets of standards are necessary to support communication among the components, such as Health Level Seven for electronic health information exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval, and Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) for imaging storage, transmission, and retrieval.
