Doctors share images with secure software

GAINESVILLE - A group of Gainesville doctors and clinics are using new secure software that makes it easier to share medical images.

IConnect helps Community Health Alliance partners log into a site and see things like x-rays.

CHA Chairman, Doctor Richard LoCicero, said they used to have to physically pick up data discs from other clinics and doctors. Now any physician with an account and authorized access to the patient's information can log into iConnect from an approved Web-enabled device.

"If the baseline image was performed say at the medical center, and then their follow-up image was performed at another site, I can actually pull up both of those images," LoCicero said.

He said CHA has been implementing iConnect over the last couple of months. Doctors are already seeing the benefits.

"I recently saw a stroke patient who I thought needed urgent surgery, but I needed to see an MRI to be sure," said LaRoy Penix, MD, a neurologist with Northeast Georgia Physicians Group Neurology. "I logged into iConnect, looked at MRIs the patient had two weeks earlier and was able to clear the patient for surgery without waiting any longer."

The iConnect system is also compatible with imaging machines of virtually any manufacturer in storing images.

The CHA is a collaboration that includes Northeast Georgia Diagnostic Clinic; Northeast Georgia Health System; Northeast Georgia Heart Center; Northeast Georgia Physicians Group; The Longstreet Clinic; and individual physicians representing medical specialty practices in the region.