Chris Craft, founder and CEO of ScriptSender, discusses why healthcare stakeholders—providers, patients, payers, regulators—have reason to be optimistic. He describes how technology innovations will deliver on long hoped-for changes in care delivery. ScriptSender provides cutting-edge solutions that help clinicians collaborate and share information through easy integration.
Q: What are the prime challenges in healthcare today?
A: There is a lot of conversation about patient access to their own health information. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is already thinking of making it a requirement to participate in Medicare. They don’t mean just penalties; they mean not letting you participate in the program unless you provide patients access to their data—and they’re not talking about a CD or fax.
Another issue is interoperability—in other words, breaking down barriers to information sharing. It’s absolutely central to quality care. Physicians need to have all relevant patient data to ensure the best possible outcomes, and often that data is siloed in different systems. There have to be bridges to the data, but some of those bridges have been as complex and expensive as a real bridge! It has to get easier. CMS underscores this in its legislation more and more as well.
Q: How do these issues apply to radiology?
A: Imaging is such a collaborative specialty. Radiologists simply have to share data—and it’s to everyone’s benefit for that to happen as efficiently as possible. As far as patient access, it’s the same for radiology as for other specialties. Patients are much more engaged now than in the past, and they want to see reports and be able to track their clinical history. There is no reason why that can’t be very simple.
Q: How does ScriptSender address these issues?
A: Very easily! It’s so interesting, because our story is about tapping into the power of technology. The solutions are there, if you know how to ask the right questions, and that’s what makes this an exciting time to be in healthcare. Technology, used properly, can effect a direct change in patient care.
We believe we have the most straightforward, cost-effective solution for integrating imaging providers and referring physicians. Data doesn’t have to be stuck in an inaccessible system. With ScriptSender, any of it—clinical notes, referral documents, lab results, a whole patient folder—can be sent to a radiologist with one click of the Print button. That’s instant interoperability because it only takes a few seconds. We make faxing and HL7 unnecessary.
We give imaging centers the same speed and accuracy in sending reports. We securely transmit results directly into a referrer system or an online portal—with links to images.
Q: What about patients?
A: Why shouldn’t they have secure online access to their own reports with image links too? All of our solutions turn these big, scary challenges into something easy and manageable, which can happen with a click or two at most. That’s what technology should be doing for healthcare, and we’re making it a reality.