HEYEX 2

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 20:18:22 GMT

Our clinic recently upgraded to the HEYEX 2 platform. Is anyone else using the platform?

On the plus side we no longer need to archive and we can have the same images open on multiple PC's at the same time, it's also more seamless finding images. However, the interface is very finicky and slow. We have 2 retina physicians and 4 general ophthalmologists, 2 photographers (3 yrs & 2 yrs experience), 4 OCT's (2 are HRA's) which we share with optometry, and we have roughly 75 OCT's a day but peaks around 100.

I'm going to get a bit into the weeds here for specificity sake. We have to send images through DICOM to Axis but there is no longer a DICOM option, there are additional steps to send images through to Axis, it's taking ~70 seconds for images to population for editing, though the OD image will pop open immediately after exiting image capture if I enable "show preview after examination" which is odd. This has significantly slowed our ability to keep up with imaging and sending through reports. I also can't push the interface very hard or it gets confused like multi selecting images or trying to use Control+A to select all it only works sometimes, also when quickly closing out of images and picking both eyes for the "Print" option I generally have options missing and one time was presented with the options in German! I believe the underlying security and data storage is superior to HEYEX but I feel very handicapped by the user interface. Just curious if anyone out there has any experience and has found any solutions or tricks to speed up the process?

Thanks!

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 01:41:27 GMT

I didn't get a chance to use it very much, we had a trial camera (I was really hoping my last clinic would upgrade at least to OCT 2, if not also to HEYEX 2) for about a week. The layout is different, and takes some significant getting accustomed to. Since the system relies heavily on RAM, I'd ask the IT folks what amount of RAM the server the software is running on has, because it's possible it needs a boost.

It could also be the speed of the drives the server is running, the WD RED Pro drives are data-server drives that have a 7200 rpm spindle, where the WD RED (not pro, just WD Red) are the slower 5400 RPM drives.

When it comes to network security, I found that HEYEX 1 and Kaspersky didn't get along very well, at all. We tried a couple other's recommended by Heidelberg for the camera systems and one of them did great, but I've seen a 45 second delay for opening pictures just from having one antivirus software versus another. I think because the files are so proprietary the bulk of antivirus programs that I've seen have looked at those proprietary files as high risk, even when the drives they're on, and programs running them are "blocked" from being scanned. Not scanning a file at its main location doesn't prevent an antivirus software from not interrogating the file as it goes from the server to the review station, etc. In theory blocking the program from being monitored should resolve that, but making that change in Kaspersky made 0 change in performance, while making that change in other equivalents did, so...

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 01:46:29 GMT

Another thought:

These cameras are pushing a lot more Data, especially OCT 2 and OCTA, because of that, they're more demanding. Having multiples of them pulling from the same server while multiple review stations are pulling from the same server, creates an even higher demand on the server. Ultimately, there's a really strong possibility that with how new HEYEX 2 still is, that they need to increase the recommendation for specs on servers. With that being said, I've always thought their camera computers were lacking a little oooomph too, but at home I'm pushing 64GB of 3200mhz ram with dual 4gb GPU's... I edit big files at home, and I don't have all day to wait around for them to be processed in Photoshop, making a change from 16gb to 32gb was good, moving from 32gb to 64gb was great, and boosting from 2400mhz to 3200mhz was phenomenal. I'm sure my next build will be pushing more than 128gb in RAM, but I might also move to a dual or tri CPU system as well, so, who knows.

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 19:55:56 GMT

Ha, we've been dealing with heyex2 for over a year now, and it's... awful. We're a very high volume clinic and it's completely crippled our processing time. A lot of the same problems you mention, bad, slow moving interface that doesn't seem to work half the time. The program crashes pretty frequently too, despite not clicking on anything extra when it's trying to load. I don't have much anything else helpful to say, but just wanted to confirm that yeah, heyex2 isn't great for us either.
A tip for the control A thing to select all - if you click to the left where the patient list is(but not on a patient, just on the blank space below) and then back onto your image, the highlight around the image should go from dark blue to light, and then control A should work all the time. You have to do this for each exam, but it becomes second nature to click over there and then back onto the image to control A them.

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 16:07:18 GMT

Thanks for the empathetic reply. Our EMR folks have helped us get the time from ~70sec to ~10sec for images to populate but the Print Heyex Report option takes awhile and it varies. I push programs pretty hard, I'm aware that I'm impatient, but Heyex 2 can't handle much at all and has minimal or no helpful keyboard shortcuts for the interface. We'll live but we have also taken a hit to productivity too. I feel your pain. Thanks for the Select All tip!

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 19:25:36 GMT

One of the big factors I've been finding is the server setup, the server protocols are really specific for quantity of cores, size of ram, and all of what they list on their documentation is their "minimum suggested". If you ask any gamer out there if they run the minimum hardware that a game requires and compare that to what their preferred hardware would be, you'll see a significant difference. I don't know why that hasn't bled over into medical, it's the same principle. You don't buy the better hardware because it looks pretty, you buy it because it works better, better performance = better throughput, and with computers nothing is faster than your slowest component, which means each part matters all the way through.

Mon, 1 Apr 2024 19:46:08 GMT

Currently the issues we were experiencing have resolved.

There is an issue when generating reports for patients with a great deal of previous imaging as we do follow up for each patient in perpetuity. Over time it takes longer to get the report choices but not longer than 30sec usually.

Overall the upgrade has been a game changer! No worrying about if images are still open on a capture station or in a Dr's office, no archiving and all the issues that brings with it, and though the interface isn't as simple or user friendly as Heyex one the trade off is quite acceptable. Most of the issues we have now are server related on our side or general issues with OCT hardware.