Custom Radiology Information System (RIS)

An RIS accumulates patient data, including patient demographics, examination details, imaging results, and referring physician information. A system enables patients’ radiology history tracking from admission to discharge. Such systems also have capabilities for scheduling imaging exams and procedures for in- and outpatient care, e.g., bulk scheduling, online booking and rescheduling for patients via patient portals, checking for appointment conflicts, setting up appointment reminders, managing referrals and waitlists.

Healthcare professionals (e.g., referring physicians, radiologists) can enter imaging orders directly into an RIS, via an integrated EHR/EMR or via a physician web portal and then track the status of an exam order and image location in real time. An RIS can also have capabilities for worklist management. That includes generation and customization of dynamic worklists, task assignment and monitoring, and automated population of worklists with radiology images from an integrated PACS.

An efficient RIS should enable bidirectional data exchange with back-office and external systems by supporting data exchange protocols (e.g., HL7 for clinical data, DICOM for imaging data). For example, an RIS can send patient and procedure data to a PACS and receive medical images from a PACS. It can also send imaging results to EHR/EMR for easy access by referring physicians and receive exam order and other patient data from it. Additionally, RIS can forward data to an HIE system for further sharing with other hospitals and professionals.

An RIS helps to track the availability of equipment for different imaging modalities, its utilization rate, and maintenance schedules and logs to prevent equipment overbooking and conduct predictive maintenance. Such solutions also allow organizations to track the location of consumables, monitor their inventory levels, and enable automated reordering. Inventory transactions in a RIS can be entered with a barcode reader or via data entry screen.

An RIS helps keep record of the performed procedures, the responsible technologists, the used machine, the radiation dosage received by the patient, the quantity of used consumables, and exam repeats. The system can then build QC reports (e.g., procedures by technologist, repeats by reason and machine) that let organizations identify areas for improvement and enhance patient safety.

An RIS can feature modules with capabilities for managing specialty-specific imaging studies. These can include dedicated protocols (e.g., for different types of cancer in oncology), integrations (e.g., a cardiac risk assessment tool for cardiology studies), and specialized reporting templates (e.g., reports with BI-RADS scores and lay report letters for mammography studies).

Basic reporting capabilities include customizable templates for structured report creation (e.g., with fields for study findings, recommendations), text editing tools for narrative reports, version control mechanisms, and secure distribution among staff and patients. Advanced capabilities allow for automated generation and auto-population of the reports with imaging study results, error-checking, and voice recognition for dictating reports (incl. from mobile devices).

An RIS can monitor radiology KPIs (e.g., turnaround time, patient wait times, exam volume per time period) and provide interactive BI dashboards with capabilities for drilling up and down, slicing and dicing. Advanced solutions can provide ML/AI-powered recommendations on optimizing workflows and resource consumption.

An RIS can be used to generate invoices that can then be accessed by patients via a patient portal or sent to them by email. Administrative staff can use an RIS to track the status of payments from patients and insurance companies and get alerts on overdue payments. Other finance management capabilities of the system include automated charge entry, insurance eligibility checks, claim generation and submission, and financial KPI tracking (e.g., average days in accounts receivable, claim denial rates and reasons).

An RIS can feature various mechanisms for sensitive data protection. They typically include data encryption at rest and in transit, role-based user access and multi-factor authentication, backup and disaster recovery, and other mechanisms. Such solutions also provide audit trails of all data-related actions, including entries and modifications to ensure complete accountability and facilitate incident investigation.