Sunday, June 14, 2015

Universal Cobbling

I've received a number of comments about the state of our Universally Disappointing Viewer. Here are some of the best:

As for the UV, thanks for the details on your experience thus far. I assure you that lots of GE customers are watching. As you know, GE has sunset PACS-IW.

The underpinnings of the UV are a Frankenstein PACS -  the UV is a "deconstructed" viewer built on the bones of multiple GE products cobbled together.  The UV can be deconstructed into the following parts - PACS-IW, RA1000, AW Server, IDI (for mammo), Centricity Clinical Archive and streaming from RTI (RealTimeImaging acquired via IDX in 2005). Pieces and parts cobbled together over the past decade largely through separate acquisitions that can be traced back to last century, the earliest from Applicare and Siemens/Loral.

The way GE runs their development, if each piece of the puzzle is not at the exact build of the other, it won't work. Keeping that in synchrony for the life of the product(s) will constantly be an issue.

Outside of the product itself, GE is a shadow of the PACS company they once were, having reorganized so many times and letting go so many expert staff.

This is a GE product and will take a while for it to stabilize. It has been over 2.5 years (I think) since they announced UV. Add on how many years they were working on it prior to launch, and well, that's too long considering the instability you are seeing.

But it's GE.
As it turns out, GE is proud (at least they say they are proud) of this heritage:

Legacy Products

Founded by Thomas Edison in 1878 as the Edison Electric Co., GE is recognized worldwide for excellence, innovation and imagination for numerous products and services spanning a wide breadth of industries. 
GE Healthcare IT is comprised heritage companies including IDX, Marquette Medical Systems, Millbrook, iPath, Innomed, Lockheed Martin Medical/LORAL, MedicaLogic, Dynamic Imaging, Medplexus and many others.
Company NameAcquired DateKey Product Legacy Names and New Names
Lockheed Martin Medical/LORAL1997(now Centricity PACS)
Innomed1997(now Centricity RIS-I - Europe/Asia)
Marquette Medical Systems1998QS (from QMI purchased by Marquette in 1995) (now Centricity Perinatal)
Applicare1999(now Centricity PACS [RA600/CA1000/EA])
Sabri2000(now Centricity EMR - Europe & EOL)
Micro Medical2000(now Centricity CVIS)
Systems Engineering Consultants2000(now Centricity Acute Care - EOL)
Per-Se RIS2001(now Centricity RIS - EOL)
ProAct Medical2001(now Centricity CIS)
CIS HQ2002
iPath2002ORMIS (now Centricity Perioperative Manager)
SEC (now Centricity Perioperative Anesthesia)
BDM2002(now Centricity Pharmacy)
MedicaLogic Logician2002Centricity Physician Office EMR (now Centricity EMR)
Millbrook2002Centricity Physician Office Practice Management (now combined with Centricity EMR as Centricity Practice Solution)
TripleG2003(now Centricity Lab)
IDX Systems Corporation2006IDX Flowcast (now Centricity Business)
IDX Groupcast (now Centricity Group Management)
IDX Carecast (now Centricity Enterprise)
IDX Patient Online (now Centricity Patient Online)
IDX Referring Practice Online (now Centricity Referring Practice Online)
IDX eCommerce Services (now Centricity EDI Services)
IDX Web Framework (now Centricity Web Framework)
IDX Imagecast (now Centricity RIS-IC)
Dynamic Imaging2007IntegradWeb PACS (now Centricity PACS-IW)
Integrad RIS/PACS (now Centricity RIS/PACS-IW)
MedPlexus2010MedPlexus EHR, MedPlexusPractice Management, MedPlexus Revenue Cycle Management and MedPlexus BSP Solution (now Centricity Advance)

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