Radiology Information System

(RIS)
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By

 Shaun Sutner, News Director

A radiology information system (RIS) is a networked software system for

managing medical imagery and associated data. A RIS is especially useful for
tracking radiology imaging orders and billing information, and is often used in
conjunction with PACS and VNAs to manage image archives, record-keeping
and billing.

A RIS has several basic functions:

Patient management
A RIS can track a patient's entire workflow within the radiology department;
radiology providers can add images and reports to EHRs, where they can be
retrieved and viewed by authorized radiology staff.
Scheduling
The RIS allows staff to make appointments for both inpatients and outpatients.

Patient tracking
Using a RIS system, providers can track a patient's entire radiology history
from admission to discharge and coordinate the history with past, present and
future appointments.

Results reporting
A RIS can generate statistical reports for a single patient, group of patients or
particular procedures.

Image tracking
Traditionally, radiology providers use RIS to track individual films and
their associated data. But as EHRs have become standard across the
healthcare industry and digitized images and PACS have been widely
adopted, radiology departments and their RIS-PACS systems have been
more drawn into the clinical workflow of the entire medical enterprise.

Billing
RIS systems provide detailed financial record-keeping and process electronic
payments and automated claims, though these functions are becoming
incorporated into medical organizations' overall EHR systems.