Commentary: Developing the Imaging Informatics Profession - SIIM News Summer 2009

Chuck Socia, RT(R)(CT)(QM), CIIP

After presenting at several conferences (including the Radiology Business Management Association - RBMA) over the past few years on the merits of imaging informatics as a profession, I gradually came to the realization that most people (especially business and hiring managers) have no clue imaging informatics professionals (IIPs) exist; much less, that there is strong justification and need for hiring these qualified individuals. That doesn’t even begin to address the larger issue of identifying qualified IIPs to hire.

One of the most common questions I am asked is, “What is Informatics?” The dictionary defines informatics as:

Informatics: (noun) (in-for-ma’-tiks) the study of the collection, categorization, and distribution of data, particularly computer data.

To spell it out a little further, informatics is the study of the practical application of information and developing the tools needed to access it by the individuals who can benefit from the information. This can be a very extensive knowledge base depending on the discipline. Masters-level study programs in informatics have existed in many major academic institutions for years. It has only been in recent years that the term “imaging informatics” has begun to be used more commonly. The informaticist’s role in today’s health care imaging environment is quickly becoming a minimum requirement to survive in the highly competitive and increasingly expensive imaging marketplace.

SIIM members are well aware of what job duties actually fall under the scope of the imaging informatics professional. The imaging informatics profession needs to take the next step in making sure this information is communicated to the wider community. We have a long way to go in making sure the medical community as a whole understands the need for this position. Human Resource professionals need to have job descriptions that include the informatics needs of an imaging department. The top-tier management needs to be shown the critical nature of what we do in meeting government requirements, as well as the financial benefits we bring to the organization. And finally, we need to make sure that our home base of administrative managers, radiologists, and imaging staff recognize the real advantages of having qualified IIPs on the team.

For HR, the IIP role helps solidify some of the “fuzzy” areas in the realm of digital imaging. There have been countless debates and discussions over who the “PACS Administrator” reports to. Is the position a radiology position, or does it fall under information technology? These gray lines make it hard to fit the role into the standard accepted organization chart. This is the stuff that keeps the HR department up at night. It sure beats the night ER doc keeping you awake at night because he forgot his password (again). In reality, the position of IIP is a cross-department clinical role with very high technical requirements that should report directly through the CIO or CMIO. Many institutions have already adopted a similar role of the clinical IT manager or nursing informatics position. The role of the IIP would fall under the same guidelines. Eventually, there will likely be an informatics team that includes representatives from imaging, nursing, biomedical, laboratory, and medical staff that all work together to handle the informatics needs in a hospital environment.

The upper management team needs to be educated to the benefits of having the IIP included in the corporate infrastructure. With the money crunch we all feel in health care, there is no denying the need to provide exactly what the IIP can offer. With advanced knowledge in workflow and how technology can be used to augment efficiency within some of the highest cost centers in the hospital, such as radiology, cardiology, and ER, we have the ability to make huge differences in the bottom line of those areas. With cross-domain knowledge of the department and system interoperability, the IIP can be a great asset in cost containment. The process of simply making sure that the systems can communicate with each other without surprise interface expenses can, in some cases, pay the salary of an IIP on a single project. The most important piece that management should be made aware of is the potential to improve patient care. With the mass of information available to us and the ability to mold that information into something useful, we have the potential to affect the quality of health care to a great degree. From improving the interpretation environment to allow increased accuracy, to speeding the time to diagnosis, to pinpointing trends or anomalies in the imaging chain, the effect can be quite dramatic.

Finally, we need to do a better job of marketing our skills and strengths to our own roots. I can’t count the number of departments, imaging centers, and clinics I have been in that have a PACS administrator whose only job is to evaluate the logs for anomalies or incorrect patient information. The administrators in these facilities believe that these skills are all that are needed to support a fully digital environment. I might also add that these same facilities are struggling to keep their operations profitable. Much time, effort, and money is spent trying to “fix” problems after they happen rather than finding the root of the problems and understanding what it takes to prevent the issues in the first place. Even the radiologists in many departments have no understanding of how the different pieces of technology and workflow in a digital environment affect their productivity and accuracy. It is our job as a whole to make sure what we as IIPs can offer is known.

We have come a very long way in the past 10 years. Imaging informatics has become much more than a buzzword in the trade journals. A true science has been formed. Our job as imaging informatics professionals is to take the next steps. Educate the industry to why and how we can make a difference in the way health care is delivered. Plan for the future of health care, and be ready to provide answers to the problems that are coming. Radiology took the brunt of the first wave of information management overload with our PACS and RIS systems. As the industry prepares for the bigger wave of EMR, it is our responsibility to provide the next generation with our lessons learned. SIIM plays a large role in educating and providing a forum for IIPs (learn more at www.siimweb.org/iip). We have a lot of work to do. Will you get in the game, or watch from the sidelines?

Chuck Socia is the Director of Hospital Systems for Empiric Systems, a division of Fujifilm. He is a founding member of the American Board of Imaging Informatics, he serves on the SIIM Annual Meeting Program Committee, and has presented at multiple conferences and seminars on the subject of imaging informatics.