ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9601020163
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MANHASSET, N.Y.
SOURCE: Newsday
Long Island's North Shore University Hospital, in collaboration with General Electric, has become the site of the world's first completely filmless heart-imaging system that stores its pictures of the human heart on CD-ROM disks, making it easier for doctors to consult on cases.
North Shore doctors and patients could be transmitting medical records electronically between hospitals and to outside specialists sometime next year. The disks store the full-motion pictures of cardiac catheterization tests, or angiograms, in which doctors thread hollow wires called catheters into the heart and coronary arteries to determine the extent of any disease and the course of treatment.
The North Shore-GE experiment in storing medical records more economically in computer memory instead of on film represents one aspect of the ``tele-medicine network'' gradually developing nationwide. These computerized records do not get lost and they can be called up immediately, copied and transmitted between distant computers via telephone lines or satellite. Film cannot be copied as a practical matter, and it degenerates over time.
``The point is,'' said Dr. Stanley Katz, North Shore's chief of cardiology, ``anyone with a CD player on a PC will be able to view the angiogram'' on a standard desktop computer.
``The advantage today,'' Katz said, ``is in instantaneous retrieval of the images at a level of clarity that is better than a filmed angiogram.''
In March, the physician said, the American College of Cardiology will release its own software, which will open ``tele-medicine'' to any physicians or hospitals with a desktop computer by allowing them to read and play the CD-ROM disks that are now replacing filmed angiograms at North Shore. Costs of the individual disks or the overall project have not been determined. But North Shore's administrative director for cardiology, Susan Somerville, says the computerized records will save the hospital about $200,000 a year on film, processing chemicals, labor and storage in outside warehouses. The chemicals are also environmental pollutants with high disposal costs.
Also, Katz said, the cost to the hospital for materials to produce and store each angiogram should drop from about $60 now to less than $5.
The system also will be in use at other medical centers next year, including the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. ``We will transfer angiograms to the Mayo Clinic for consultations, especially in the realm of pediatric cardiology,'' Katz said. The Mayo Clinic has special expertise in treating children's complex congenital heart problems, Katz said, ``and it would be nice to consult with them instantaneously rather than mailing the angiogram and waiting days for a reply.''
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