nNovia Ultrasound at Highland General Hospital's ER
2008-12-11
nNovia Bolsters Ultrasound at Highland General Hospital’s ER Improving Patient Healthcare and Hospital Finances.
San Jose, California, December 11, 2008 – Ultrasound plays a critical role in hospital emergency rooms (ER) across America. Quickly capturing, reviewing and archiving ultrasound sonograms pose unique workflow challenges that nNovia solves.
Arun Nagdev, MD, Emergency Ultrasound Program Director for Highland General Hospital in Oakland, California explains that Highland’s ER sees 80,000 patients per year where over 6,000 ultrasounds are administered.
“Bedside ultrasound has been integrated into our emergency medicine practice, and in many ways is the 21st century version of a stethoscope. Mobility, durability and speed make bedside ultrasound an essential tool in the care of our patients. Unfortunately, the ability to store, reference and archive all of our ultrasounds has been a very challenging problem. In the past, we have used various formats without success, and searched for a portable, intuitive and secure storage device that can be incorporated into our workflow. I found the solution with nNovia.”
“Prior to receiving Dr. Nagdev’ s call,” said Harn Soper, VP of Business Development at nNovia, “our focus has been on media production clients. We learned that capturing video sonograms in the unpredictable ER environment was similar to our broadcast news clients where a news event unfolds quickly and must be captured in a simple, fast and fail‐safe manner. “
In October and November, 2008, Highland’s ER tested nNovia’s QuickCapture™ Deck 24/7 with little instruction given to staff using only a single button remote control. nNovia’s QuickCapture Deck recorded sonograms to a 120GB removable Mediapac hard drive. The deck captured video from the ultrasound’s analog s‐video port. Sonograms up to several minutes in length were converted in realtime to high quality DV25 digital files immediately viewable on a Mac or PC.
At regular intervals and without taking the ultrasound off‐line, Dr. Nagdev removed the Mediapac from the ultrasound system and connected it to his laptop where the sonograms could be played, replayed, studied, annotated and then archived by Highland’s ER physicians. The QuickCapture Deck was successfully tested on Sonosite MicroMaxx™ and GE LOGIQ™ portable ultrasound systems. In addition to improving patient healthcare, by archiving the sonograms, Highland has streamlines insurance reimbursement of up to $50 per ultrasound. At 6,000 ER sonograms per year, the revenue opportunity is dramatic and made possible by nNovia video QuickCapture technology.
For further information, an Ultrasound Case Study can be seen on |
