System Integration & Interoperability Flashcards

Which interface standard is most commonly used to communicate patient demographic and order information between a Hospital Information System (HIS) and a PACS?

Answer: HL7

HL7 (Health Level 7) messaging is the primary standard used to exchange administrative and clinical data such as ADT, ORM, and ORU messages between HIS/RIS and PACS.

In a PACS integration workflow, an HL7 ORM message is used to:

Answer: Send radiology orders from RIS to the modality worklist

The HL7 ORM (Order Message) is sent from the RIS to populate the Modality Worklist (MWL), allowing technologists to select patient exams directly on the imaging device.

The IHE Scheduled Workflow (SWF) integration profile defines the interaction between which of the following systems?

Answer: HIS, RIS, Modality, and PACS

IHE SWF coordinates the end-to-end radiology workflow among HIS, RIS, imaging modalities, and PACS, standardizing how orders, images, and results flow.

A DICOM Modality Worklist (MWL) server reduces errors by:

Answer: Allowing technologists to retrieve pre-populated patient demographics at the scanner

MWL pushes scheduled exam data to modalities so technologists do not need to manually type patient information, reducing transcription errors and misidentification.

Which IHE transaction is responsible for sending a completed study notification back to the RIS after images are stored in PACS?

Answer: RAD-13 (Modality Images Stored)

RAD-13 (Modality Images Stored) notifies the image manager/PACS that a modality has completed storing images, triggering downstream RIS status updates.

When integrating PACS with an EHR using FHIR, which FHIR resource is typically used to represent a diagnostic imaging study?

Answer: ImagingStudy

The FHIR ImagingStudy resource represents a DICOM study, including series and instance references, enabling EHR systems to link to images stored in PACS.

A PACS administrator notices that newly registered patients in the HIS are not appearing on the RIS worklist. The MOST likely cause is:

Answer: HL7 ADT feed from HIS to RIS is broken

Patient registration data flows from HIS to RIS via HL7 ADT (Admit/Discharge/Transfer) messages; a broken ADT feed means new patients cannot be scheduled in RIS.