The Digital Imaging Adoption Model (DIAM), launched at ECR 2016, was jointly developed by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics Europe and the European Society of Radiology (ESR) to support organisations in planning and implementing imaging IT.
The model is the first of its kind worldwide and comprises ten focus areas essential to the digitisation in imaging IT. These areas include patient engagement, personalised medicine and clinical documentation, amongst others.
Similar to the HIMSS Analytics EMR and Continuity of Care Adoption Models, DIAM has 8 stages, with Stage 0 indicating low maturity and Stage 7 representing advanced maturity. One significant difference is that the highest three stages in DIAM reflect specialised branches that can be achieved separately.
Organisations will need to master at least one of these for Stage 5, two of them for Stage 6, and all three for Stage 7.
Participants complete a survey that gathers information on the current imaging IT environment at their institution. The DIAM survey enables institutions to utilise a structured approach for assessing imaging IT infrastructure.
58 hospitals from 18 countries have already taken the DIAM survey and now benefit from their individual gap report, metrics for benchmarking on different levels (region, country or global), recommendations for IT system improvement and other practical advice. Several DIAM workshops have be organised at major radiological events in different countries.
The Digital Imaging Adoption Model (DIAM), launched at ECR 2016, was jointly developed by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics Europe and the European Society of Radiology (ESR) to support organisations in planning and implementing imaging IT. DIAM has 8 stages, stage 0 indicates a low level of maturity in imaging IT and stage 6 represents a very advanced imaging IT system in the department, including enterprise – widely available imaging IT infrastructure, workflow and process security and fully integrated and digitised image management.
We are pleased to announce that DIAM Stage 6 has been achieved for the first time ever. King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC) Riyadh is the first facility in the world to reach this high level of recognition in radiological imaging. Experts from DIAM, Professor Peter Mildenberger (ESR) and Jorg Studzinski (Director Research and Advisory Services, HIMSS Europe), visited the hospital to validate achievement of DIAM Stage 6.
“Congratulations! King Abdulaziz Medical City’s commitment to achieving advanced maturity in its imaging IT capabilities is now validated with the attainment of DIAM Stage 6. To provide context, we have assessed 41 hospitals on the DIAM across the globe, with the average DIAM score being three. KAMC is well ahead of the curve. This focus on using information technology to improve imaging processes is leading to better care for patient involvement and communication,” said Professor Peter Mildenberger, from the ESR.
KAMC Riyadh is part of a group of hospitals operated by and providing services for the Ministry of the National Guard. Its next goal is to attain DIAM Stage 7 within the next six months.
“King Abdulaziz Medical City Riyadh is the first in the world to achieve this high level of imaging IT maturity in radiology. Alongside its Stage 6 achievement, KAMC Riyadh also possesses strong capabilities regarding health information exchange and patient engagement as well as analytics and workflow security. I am confident they will reach their Stage 7 vision soon,” said Jörg Studzinski, Director Research and Advisory Services, HIMSS Europe, HIMSS Analytics.
Start your DIAM journey and benefit from the project.
Guiding the digitisation of imaging IT
Decision support for imaging departments’ IT strategy
Benchmarking opportunities
Moving towards value-based imaging
Healthcare market recognition for DIAM Stage 6 & 7 organisations
The model is based on the 10 focus areas that HIMSS Analytics and the ESR consider to be essential to the digitisation of imaging IT:
Ms. Lonneke Vermeulen, Clinical Informatics trainee, Medisch Spectrum Twente
“We have adopted the DIAM model to determine our IT maturity and go-forward strategy making use of current and beneficial Imaging IT within the department.
The DIAM assessment and Gap Report are easy to understand and the recommended actions will be taken into account during our current process of selecting and implementing a new Radiology Information System.”
Prof. Sergey Morozov, MD, PhD, MPH, the president of the European Society of Medical Imaging Informatics (EuSoMII), Chief regional radiology officer, Moscow, Russia
"The Digital Imaging Adoption Model (DIAM) project is a great example of the cooperation between IT specialists, radiologists, and workflow managers. An information system is one of the tools to make the work of medical organisations more effective and efficient, particularly in priority areas like the methods of diagnostics, quality assurance and image analysis. These principles are part of many standards in radiology and ESR projects. The DIAM project, for its part, helps physicians understand the variety of the information systems available and determine what to strive for in the development of the radiology department. DIAM also helps IT professionals better understand the needs of physicians in IT solutions.
Therefore, DIAM is an example of the harmonisation of the work of radiologists, clinicians, IT specialists and administrators.
Most importantly, doctors receive specific recommendations for the development of their department and IT infrastructure according to the results of a self-assessment. At present, work is under way on the end-to-end integration of the DIAM project with other ESR projects. This will facilitate even better mutual understanding between representatives of medicine and the world of IT."
Prof. Valentin Sinitsyn, MD, PhD, the president of the Russian Radiology Society, Head of the Center for Radiation Diagnostics at the Federal State Institution of Health Care of the Russian Federation
DIAM is a unique project. We know that information technology is an essential tool for the further development and improvement of radiology diagnostics. In Russia, the digitisation of radiology diagnostics is only just beginning. The DIAM project gives us an opportunity to understand the most important areas of using these technologies in radiology,
to assess their maturity in a particular medical institution and the level of integration with other services of a medical institution. It is very important that the results of self-assessment give the participants important recommendations for further development of digitisation of imaging IT.
Prof. Lluís Donoso-Bach, MD, PhD, Director Diagnostic Imaging Department, Hospital Clínic of Barcelona. University of Barcelona.
The DIAM gap report we received is a very helpful analysis and can be used for different purposes, such as internal discussions about the imaging IT system development and for monitoring the system over time, when the survey is repeated within a period.
In addition, DIAM is a vendor-neutral tool and has been developed by ESR experts with experience in different imaging IT fields, so the report’s results and recommendations are entirely reliable. Using this report, it is possible to further plan our imaging IT strategy and identify key opportunities for improvement.
