Customers around the globe have been using Business intelligence tools to mine their radiology order and report data. Not only to help monitor the current pandemic, plan for radiology capacity but also to learn and be better prepared in case any future outbreak might occur.(*)
Text search in radiology reports is a powerful tool to find emerging trends.
A pandemic usually starts small, but once gaining traction, can have a steep growth pattern. Catching it first signs early can help stop the spread. Or in this case, finding the root of when and where exactly the disease started to emerge. This is what customers in Italy have done. With text search in radiology reports on term like ‘pneumonia’, ‘pneumonitis’, or any other relevant terms, they were able to back-track the start of the outbreak. At a later stage, once the disease was confirmed, report text search on terms like ‘COVID-19’ can be also be used for further research purposes.
See 1st screenshot below for an example.
Optimizing radiology capacity in times of pandemic is key.
Agfa Healthcare’s Business Intelligence solution can help with daily monitoring in real-time of the number of radiology exams, by day, cumulative, per exam type like chest X-ray, CT-chest or point-of-care lung ultrasound. This allows departments to better understand, plan or re-organize radiology services capacity for adequate workflow and response time in time of crisis.
See 1st screenshot below for an example.
Flagging reports and studies to gather insights for future research.
Even in the midst of a crisis, healthcare professionals remain dedicated not only to solve the short term challenge, but also gathering scientific insights for future research. Reports or studies can be flagged by using specific COVID-19 related UDP (user-definable properties) or predefined Keywords. Business intelligence reports that allow to drill down on attributes like gender and age, can also add value insight in understanding this new disease pattern and further research.
Combining text-search and integration with Google Maps
Agfa HealthCare’s Business Intelligence solution can be integrated with Google Maps to help visualize geographical information that can help local decision making in the fight against the virus spreading, f.e by the visualization of infection clusters.
Click on the 2nd screenshot on the right for an illustrative example of the Google Maps integration.
For more COVID-19 configurations, access the #StrongerTogether webpage (*).
(*) Please know that depending on your region and current installation, some use cases may not be applicable to you. Please check with your local Agfa HealthCare contact person.