Exporting Diabetic Retinopathy Images from VA VistA Imaging for Research.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs has been acquiring store and forward digital diabetic retinopathy surveillance retinal fundus images for remote reading since 2007. There are 900+ retinal cameras at 756 acquisition sites. These images are manually read remotely at 134 sites.

Streamlining importation of outside prior DICOM studies into an imaging system.

A patient has an imaging study performed at one facility and has the study exported to portable media. Later, the patient takes the media to a different institution. The study on that media may need to be imported into that new institution's imaging system.

Telehealth practice recommendations for diabetic retinopathy.

Telehealth holds the promise of increased adherence to evidenced-based medicine and improved consistency of care. Goals for an ocular telehealth program include preserving vision, reducing vision loss, and providing better access to medicine. Establishing recommendations for an ocular telehealth program may improve clinical outcomes and promote informed and reasonable patient expectations.

The multimedia electronic patient record: current issues.

Complete online patient data including both traditional medical chart information and clinical images is essential in providing healthcare in a multi-facility environment. To meet this need, the Department of Veterans Affairs has developed a multimedia online patient record that includes traditional medical chart information as well as a wide variety of medical images from specialties such as cardiology, pulmonary and gastrointestinal medicine, pathology, radiology, hematology, and nuclear medicine. The ability to perform direct image acquisition from DICOM devices combined with diagnostic radiology reading from high resolution workstations allows hospitals to operate without making xray film.