When it comes to providing the best possible care, having the right information at the right time makes all the difference for any provider. For many clinicians, diagnostic images like X-rays and MRIs are a key piece to the puzzle of making treatment decisions. Too often, access to imaging is fragmented, resulting in an arduous process of follow-up phone calls, emails, and even faxes, which can easily delay patient care.
Connie offers a solution to change that by acting as a single source of truth that benefits Connecticut’s entire healthcare ecosystem.
With Connie’s Image Share repository, providers across the state can now access near-real-time, diagnostic-quality images for their patients. This comprehensive database is compiled from across Connie’s network of hospitals, clinics, and healthcare facilities, eliminating the need to search far and wide for historical images.
How Image Share Improves Care
Since joining Connie in 2021, Advanced Orthopedics New England has been able to access thousands of images for patients from other organizations, enabling orthopedic specialists to make more informed decisions faster. Unlike most interoperability solutions, which often only offer diagnostics and notes, Connie provides access to the actual images. For orthopedics, having these images is critical because it helps catch misdiagnoses, find overlooked injuries or conditions, and track healing progress.
HIEs have become crucial resources for clinical collaboration and a key factor in improving patient outcomes. They have contributed to a 10.2% reduction in hospital length-of-stay, cut down on costly duplicate tests, and reduced the burden of prior authorizations. Resources such as Image Share ensure physicians have the right information available at the point of care decision-making, strengthening patient outcomes and care value for all.
More Accessible Imaging for Everyone
One of the biggest challenges of healthcare is interoperability: the ability for providers and care teams to share and gather all the information needed to paint a complete picture of patient health. Imaging is no exception to the challenges providers face in collecting crucial data.
With Image Share, providers can easily access their patients’ imaging history directly through Connie. They can review an image side-by-side with radiology reports, compare images from multiple providers, or even transfer images to their own PACS.
This means that when a patient is seeing a new specialist, moving to a new region, or just coming in for a follow-up, they can be confident their provider has the whole story—and so can their medical team.
Currently, over 3,100 organizations are exchanging information through Connie, but only a handful are contributing radiology images. Progress has been made, however, with larger provider networks. Most recently, Image Share welcomed Hartford HealthCare — a care-delivery system with nearly 500 locations serving 185 towns and cities that touches more than 23,000 lives every single day — as well as Griffin Health, a 160-bed acute care community hospital serving more than 130,000 residents of the Lower Naugatuck Valley Region, to its network of imaging contributors. Still, to ensure progress in this space, it’s crucial for more providers to enroll in and exchange radiology images with Connie so we can collectively better serve patients throughout Connecticut.
Better Access for Better Care
Whether a provider is trying to avoid unnecessary repeat imaging, ensure proper follow-up care, or even make critical decisions in the emergency department, Connie’s Image Share is transforming the way providers connect.
By participating in Connie, you’re helping create a more connected and efficient healthcare system for everyone in Connecticut.
Visit Connie’s website to learn more about the Image Share service, access a training video and discover the ways Connie helps advance healthcare in Connecticut.
Jeremy Fournier is the Director of Practice Operations for Advanced Orthopedics New England, with locations in Tolland and Hartford Counties, as well as Springfield, MA. Jeremy currently serves as a member on Connie’s Data Governance Committee. Outside of work, Jeremy volunteers his musical talents in charity bands, supporting causes like breast cancer awareness and fundraisers for families in need.