The CDN Cardiology Story
Cardiology requires efficient, consistent, streamlined solutions in today’s healthcare environment that are supported by specialised and flexible workflow tools, with ‘follow me’ technology on your workstation or BYOD providing you with access to patient information. A workflow that includes viewing and reporting from anywhere and at any time. The advent of a single sign on is the start of getting I.T. to work with you, rather than it dictating how you should work with IT.
CDN provides Real World Innovations
The great strength of IT is the ability to adapt, enhance and introduce efficiencies to your workflow giving you more time with your patients.
Getting the complete digital picture can sometimes be problematic. Not everything shares a universal interoperability mantra. Multiple sign-ins, different looking desktops and multiple disparate systems create the environment for data to be lost, corrupted or misinterpreted. To support you and to deliver the best outcomes for your patients CDN have developed a homogenous and effective cardiology data system.
Compounding this frustration much of the tried and true technology in use today is not capable of supporting a digital output. We all want the latest technology, but why replace something that is working well? Some well-meaning advisors will tell you that your workflow and efficiency could be better with the latest technology.
The ability to communicate bi-directionally with other clinical information systems is mandatory to bring the benefits of a single sign-on desktop. The source of truth in many organisations is the EMR, the start and finish of the patient record journey. Our middleware expertise to connect these systems and devices has been developed over our twenty-five-year history of information management and software design.
The healthcare capital expenditure budget is getting harder and harder to find. New technology often appears cheaper, however once the costs for connection to the information management system is taken into account it becomes a frustrating and costly exercise.
Many IT solutions are designed for tomorrow’s interconnectivity and not for existing assets integration, causing the costly retirement of reliable technology rather than a planned technology change-over spanning a number of years or until the said equipment truly becomes redundant.
An important consideration is being able to search the reporting database for a disease group, a phrase or a string of variables. The CDN Merlin Cardiology system provides a very powerful but simple to use tool to do this.
The search for a suitable Cardiac Information and Reporting Solution can be overwhelming. What type of solution do you need? Do you want something that supports your current situation, or something that can grow with you as your practice grows with new partners, associates and diagnostic clinical infrastructure? Cardio SR is a scalable system, capable of being simply a Cardiac Echo Structured Reporting tool or an ECG one-click reporting system, all the way to an Enterprise Architecture model supporting a highly developed Cardiac IT solution that helps you to run your business effectively.
The Merlin Cardiology solution has the capability to ingest ECG in a variety of formats; paper, XML, DICOM ECG format or PDF based outputs. These are loaded into your reporting list along with ECHO, Cardiac CT, Cardiac MRI, Holter and Cath. You have the flexibility to group the studies together or move seamlessly from one patient or study to another. The worklist system allows you to customise the way studies are presented based on who logs in, providing you with the flexibility to tailor practice workflows in a myriad of forms to make your reporting sufficient and effective.
This technology can also be used to ingest and convert other documents into formats that can be readily viewed by the browser or imported into the patients file notes or folder. We’ve designed this function to be highly automated and to not impact existing workflows.
Cardiology’s uniqueness is based on a large and diverse range of available diagnostic procedures, interventional tests and Clinical notes. The Merlin Cardiology system provides for a wide range of diagnostic and imaging data sources.
Echo
Over 900,000 Cardiac Echocardiograms are performed every year in Australia, and rapid indication of cardiac health is paramount.
Our new CardioMotion LV analysis tool can give you a fast and accurate indication of any abnormal conditions in Ejection Fraction, Wall Movement and LV Strain, including Global Longitudinal Strain, or step up to the newly released Qardia analysis and measurement package from our partners CAAS for a more comprehensive reporting system.
Merlin Cardiology can provide Imaging, Historical Information, Structured Reports and re-processing analytical tools at your fingertips. Create your Structured Reports using common standards such as ASE guidelines or parameters that you choose, you control and are included into your reporting templates.
Some structured reporting systems are highly rigid and can’t be amended without help and additional costs from the company that sold it to you. With Cardio SR you can add or edit the information fields of the SR template, add comments and change wording ‘live’ as you add in other relevant information, and reveal DICOM Data Fields that are normally hidden to deliver additional information to support your findings or research. Above all else, you can add free text into the report, without impacting the existing structure report fields.
Once your Echo Technologist has loaded your lists to be reported, the Merlin Cardiology desktop can be set up to provide an efficient and contiguous workflow that can be filtered for just echo’s or any other modality or combination of modalities. As each report is finalised and verified, the next patient is automatically loaded… True one-click reporting.
ECG management module
The digital and the medical world requires adherence to standards. This delivers reproducibility and accuracy with measurable outcomes. The Merlin Cardiology solution has the capability to ingest ECG in a variety of formats; paper, XML, DICOM ECG format or PDF based outputs. These are templated and placed into your reporting list. Once the reports are verified, the report can be automatically sent as an encrypted email, or via an HL7 message and sent to the EMR for distribution.
Holter
Holter analysis workstations are many and varied, and are an important part of the Cardiology tool-kit. We have developed a process to harvest the essential data points from your analysis report outputs and include them into a standardised structured report. This allows you to bring this data into a single database for report distribution, data analysis and billing. Whether you use your Holter data for research, clinical practice or commercial services we have a solution.
Merlin Cardiology
Most reporting systems are vendor specific and inflexible, whereas Merlin Cardiology is Vendor Neutral and able to be connected to any brand of Cardio Vascular Information System and any brand of PACS, providing an ideal solution for the typically “mixed vendor” cardiology practice.
CardioSR is the first complete workflow and reporting system written in HTML5, so it works with your mobile devices and has a ‘zero footprint’ on your device. You can report on any PC, any device, anywhere and anytime.
The PACS requirements for Cardiology are different and more demanding than other specialities. Echocardiography and Cardiac Catheterisation laboratories create some of the largest native Image patient files in the imaging arena. Combining these with CCTA and Cardiac MRI, you need a system that can handle and display multiple large datasets. Moreover, access to clinical information is vital. The Merlin Cardiology solution has the ability to collate and present the data you need in one desktop. Scalability and functionality are the keys to creating a solution that delivers the desired outcomes of performance, capability and affordability.
Cardiac Catheterisation Image and Data Management
Cath Lab images and data sets can be easily aggregated in Merlin Cardiology, along with haemodynamic system reports and data fields. With patient data at your finger-tips providing access to information generated in the catheter lab simply and affectively, you are able to quickly and accurately compile reports. View previous reports and catheter lab information, review the Cath Lab images of the current study, along with the haemodynamic report, Echo data, IVUS or OCT images and associated data.
CVIS
The Central Data Networks CVIS is a web based versatile portal that is adaptable to meet the requirements of your enterprise. Our CVIS supports multi-site, multi room and multi consultant environments. It is currently working across many large enterprise installations in both Australia and China. As a locally developed solution provider our Australian based development team can tailor our CVIS to match and enhance your Cardiology workflows. Solutions that work for you, for your staff and for your patients.
CDN’s CVIS is an intuitive, powerful patient management system with a flexible user interface which allows reception staff to make bookings, automatically send letters and reports. SMS appointment reminders can be included and track a procedure’s progress. It operates around a redundant replicated single database structure and is thus a single enterprise system. It can include electronic Medicare, Private Health Fund and third party billing with integration to new or existing billing systems via HL7, XML and other predefined protocols.
CT
As CT acquisition times got faster and faster, beyond what was needed for Radiology, and started to meet the high temporal, contrast and resolution requirements needed for Cardiology, it has become a vital tool in the Cardiology arena. The advent of Cardiac 2D/3D vessel analysis software has become available to provide automatic processing and segmentation improving workflow yet again. If you already have a preference for an existing workstation software package, we can integrate your preferred Clinical Application into Merlin PACS. Moreover, if you have an existing patient database of CCTA studies, as your patients present for follow up studies Merlin PACS will link all of the existing studies into a searchable CT image database.
Structural Heart and Vascular pre-op planning.
Import your CT studies directly into our 3mensio Structural Heart pre-operative planning software applications to seamlessly generate clear and accurate dimensional models and evaluate catheter approach routes before you even enter the theatre. With essential tools for performing TAVI and TMVI procedures, and with our Vascular package for designing and planning AAA and TAA grafts you will have the complete3D visualisation and measurement tool set.
Molecular Imaging
Molecular imaging now offers an array of tools to develop advanced diagnostic approaches and therapies for patients with coronary artery disease and heart failure. Using existing techniques such as perfusion imaging, appropriate patients can be selected for treatment with novel therapies, such as stem cell transplantation or vascular gene therapy. Merlin Cardiology allows you to collect and store imaging sets from any vendor’s equipment, store data fields in a common database, and create structured report templates using CardioSR.
Cardiac MRI
Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance is being used increasingly to evaluate patients with Ischemic heart disease. The advantages of no radiation, getting both an anatomical and a functional view are certainly strengths of CMR. It is appropriate that you have access to viewing and 3D tools to take advantage of this modality.
Other optional features include:
Patient Booking system
DICOM Worklists
Viewing and Reporting
Report Distribution
Billing
Archiving
Remote Access, Viewing and Reporting.
Communication with the EMR or HIS
The Clinical Modalities we support
Echocardiography
Holter
Stress Exercise
ECG
Ambulatory Blood Pressure
Molecular Imaging (Nuclear Medicine and PET)
X-Ray
Cardiac Catheterisation
Cardiac CT
Structural Heart pre-op planning for TAVI, TMVI or LAA procedures based on Cardiac CT.
Cardiac CT based pre-op planning for AAA and TAA procedures.
Cardiac MR
CCTA