title: Impact of digital imaging and communications in medicine workflow on the integration of patient demographics and ophthalmic test data.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the impact of a Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) workflow on the linkage of demographic information to ophthalmic testing data.
  
  
  METHODS
  Evaluation of technology.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six hundred ninety-nine visual field testing encounters performed by 6 ophthalmic technicians and the transfer error queue of 37 442 ophthalmic test results.
  
  
  METHODS
  At 3 months before and 6 and 18 months after implementation of a DICOM workflow, technicians recorded the work required to enter, confirm, or edit patient demographics in each visual field device. We also determined the proportion of imaging tests sent to an error queue for manual reconciliation because of incorrect demographic information before and 3, 6, and 18 months after the DICOM workflow was established.
  
  
  METHODS
  The proportion of testing encounters for which staff had to enter, edit, or merge patient demographics and the proportion of misfiled images.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Staff entered, edited, or merged data for 48% of patients before implementation (n = 237). This decreased to 24% within 6 months and 20% within 18 months of implementing the DICOM archive (n = 230 and n = 232, respectively). Staff could locate a patient in a DICOM work list for 97% of encounters at 3 months and 99% at 18 months. Before implementation, 9.2% of the images required additional intervention to be associated with the correct patient (n = 3581). This decreased by 85% over 6 months to 1.4% (n = 9979; P < 0.01). There was an increase in the percentage of misfiled images between 6 and 18 months from 1.4% to 2.2% (n = 24 549; P < 0.01), representing an overall 76% decrease over 18 months relative to the pre-DICOM period.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Implementation of a DICOM-compatible workflow in an ophthalmology clinic reduced the need to enter or edit patient demographic information into imaging or testing devices by more than 50% and reduced the need to manage misfiled images by 76%. In a clinical environment that demands both efficiency and patient safety, the DICOM workflow is an important update to current practice.
authors.affiliation: Glaucoma Center of Excellence, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland; Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: Ravi R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Pandit
authors.affiliation: Glaucoma Center of Excellence, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland; Division of Health Sciences Informatics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. Electronic address: boland@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Michael V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Boland
mesh_terms: D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003628:Database Management Systems; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D003941:Diagnostic Techniques, Ophthalmological; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D063005:Health Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D009881:Ophthalmic Assistants; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D014794:Visual Fields; D057188:Workflow