Ambra Health Reviews

Pros
The features and functionality of the Ambra product is outstanding. We use the system in three distinct ways - 1) sharing images to, receiving images from, and bi-directional sharing with our partners, 2) providing online access to images and reports for our referring community and patients, and 3) supporting our business of providing radiology reads for family practice, urgent care, chiropratic and other imaging providers without a radiologist on staff. These three features, or capabilities, go well beyond the VNA aspect of the product. It's so powerful that the VNA is almost an afterthought to how you'll use it.

Cons
There is a learning curve to this vast product and some of the terminology is new or different from the imaging industry standard. Don't let that shy you away from engaging with Ambra. It's well worth the effort.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Out of all the image exchange companies out there Ambra is by far the easiest to set up and use. Not only did we just give them a list of frequent customers that we exchange images with often and they took care of installing the software and creating bi-directional image exchange, but, they also were able to provide a solution for our teleradiology customers even building interfaces for HL7.

Cons
There isn't much I don't like. They are easy to reach for support and have a very knowledgeable support desk.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I like that the software is secure and we can attach pdf documents with the radiographs.

Cons
Some of the functionality, the steps that I have to take just to get to the radiographs that I want to send. The format or options that are available to us to send to recipients. I don't like how we can't track what was sent. I also don't think it's fair that there is a cost for every item that we send.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 5/10

Pros
1. Aids patients/care givers in providing their exams with other institutions/care givers. 2. Patients are no longer dependent on CDs. 3. Patients take more control of their healthcare needs by being able to view, share and download their own exams

Cons
appears to be too dependent on bandwidth for image viewing. Increased/efficient compression algorithms would be nice to facilitate the speed of download and viewing.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The log in process is simple thanks to linkage with my company's log in process

Cons
ALL x rays should be readily reviewable when one is pulled up on the software. Currently, to look at old xrays, one has to back out of current study and then find older study with new search. VERY INCONVENIENT,

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
The ease and speed of uploading imaging studies is very good.

Cons
1) At least in our institutions implementation of the software, Each time you open the software the name of the last patient images you accessed and then search list is still populated and if you are using this software to show another patient their imaging studies, you risk a HIPPA violation because until the prior search is cleared another person's HPI is available to be seen on the screen. 2) This my reflect our institutions implementation of the software, but as a surgeon if I am in the OR and want to display images that are in AMBRA during the procedure, the viewer times out in just a few minutes making it not useful in that setting. 3) When viewing axial and either sagittal or coronal images in split screen mode, if you try to activate the slice locator function it will often severely slow down image navigation and often cause the program to freeze

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 6/10

Pros
At the New Jersey Spine Specialists we have been using Ambra health PACS radiographic software upwards, close to five years now. We have grown familiar with the product and enjoy its merits of uploading patient images upon consultation then being able to review the films privately before discussing the films with the patients in examination rooms. The ease of using the software universally in more than one location has made patient care more timely and effective. We believe this has streamlined medical care and ultimately improve our patient outcomes with more efficient care.

Cons
Ambra Health at times has slow upload times. We have noticed radiographic images such as CAT scan and certain MRIs have large packet sizes which can result in viewing time delays. Overall, this is still fairly infrequent and usually manageable upon review.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
It is fairly easy to use. The software has a lot of tools are doctors appreciate and they are easy to use. The staff is friendly when we have an issue with the software.

Cons
There seems to be a lot of glitches. We seem to have issues with the images coming across in a timely fashion. The images will come across fine and then there is an issue with one or two studies. This frustrates the doctors. The doctors come back to x-ray and want to know the issue. When AMBRA is emailed about the issue, we get the an automated response that the issue is being looked into. Two or three hours later we get an email stating the images are now available. We are aware the images are on AMBRA - it is a little late. The doctor has already come back to x-ray to view the images on the x-ray computer. When we talk to someone the response we get from AMBRA is "we will get with the developers" or "we will get with the engineers."

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 5/10

Pros
Zero foot print viewer, easy to download dicom files. Easy to transfer to outside facilities once the gateway has been created (which Ambra does with minimum effort on our part) Or if no gateway we use email to send studies. Which requires little effort for our users

Cons
Sometimes we have to use different filters to find a patients study e.g. if you just put in the medical record number you may not find the exam you want so you'll have to use the name and visa versa-but this is rare. This is really a non-issue but I wish they kept their name of DICOM GRID...

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The software is easy to use and if i ever have a problem i can speak to someone within a few minutes to resolve any issues.

Cons
It does seem to take a while for images to load up when trying to view larger studies such as MRI or CT

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I liked how this software was so easy to use and was already integrated with our EHR, so the implementation was easy and streamlined because Ambra was already aware of what was required of us. I liked the support I received and continue to receive from Ambra and our Account Implementation Manager/Specialist. I like that clinicians/providers don't even have to leave the chart to see results and results are ready in minutes! The software covers everything we need and is always up and available when it is needed. I like how when you call into support, people are so helpful and understand that we need a quick resolution to our issues since we are in the healthcare industry. The help desk is always professional and helpful.

Cons
There is not much I don't like about the software except that I wish the ultrasound reports were a little more customizable. We also have some integration issues in our EHR, Athena Health, as we cannot see the report and the link to the studies in one report within the chart. We have two links that have to be clicked, one for the report and one for the link to the image. Clinicians complain about having to click so much, but it is better than what other companies are able to do with Athena. The problem is not necessarily with the software but with the level of integration.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Easy to use! If I get a call at home to "fix" something I don't have to travel into the hospital, I can do it from home. Customer service is second to none! You are talking to real people and they more often than not can have an answer for you while on the phone. I had a LOT of questions when we first started using Ambra and they were at my beckon call and tremendous to work with. Easy to fix studies that need images removed or moved from study to study (we do not have a worklist.)

Cons
In the last year of having it, we have only had it happen once, but there was a website outage. You have to purchase as an add on a license for an "always up link". I would rather that option be available in the price or communicated up front. The outage only last 10-15 minutes and we are a very small hospital so there was no issue with it, but large busy 24/7 departments I think the add on would be a must!

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
web based although the images are stored locally.

Cons
there are too many clicks required to perform basic functions, e.g. loading a study from CD should not require 7+ clicks. sounds trivial but if you are doing this multiple times a day, this adds up over the course of a career. also, when the application loads after login, it loads a null search, which takes a very long time. the landing page after login should not search for anything but allow the user to perform the search (or other function) they logged in to do. again, sounds trivial but when it happens at least once a day it gets old quick. also, have not gotten any follow up on my multiple attempts at outreach regarding these issues.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 5/10

Pros
Its ease of use and that it is cloud based and clients can access it from anywhere. Patients can give anyone access to their images through the shareable interface.

Cons
We didn't really find anything we didn't like about the software. It is pretty much a whole package at a very good price compared to other PACs systems. Very affordable for smaller practices who can't afford to go with the larger PACs systems

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
The cost was the best feature. We also liked that we could speak with someone and they were willing to get back to us in a timely manner.

Cons
The thing that I liked least was that we had to purchase anything. I can't really complain about any of the encounters we have had.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The software provided a solution to many image exchange obstacles we were facing.

Cons
As an administrator, I prefer to have more ownership in the configurations too much of the application is vendor controlled.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 5/10

Pros
Ambra does exactly what our company needs it to do -- securely transmit thousands of imaging files from all over the world. It's interface is simple and we have been able to work with the team to customize the front end of the software.

Cons
There are some custom elements, such as rejecting certain types of scans, that we have to write ourselves, and sometimes the Ambra development team will change something in their backend which disrupts our custom code. But this happens very infrequently.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
The user interface is very easy to utilize with a small learning curve. Access Online (in the Cloud) is very convenient. Very easy to share/send a study via email. Good user role controls.

Cons
Two things: My facility does a lot of fMRI studies which produce thousands of images per study. What we need to do with them after the scan unfortunately doesn't work well with AMBRA's system. Secondly, I know that AMBRA promotes emailing studies over burning CDs. I agree with that but occasionally still need to burn a CD. The AMBRA system lets me burn a CD, not as easily as in other systems I've utilized, but I can't figure out how to burn two or more studies onto one CD.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Easy, user friendly. Not difficult to learn

Cons
Sometimes shutss off randomly or when i click on a tab, it doesnt letme write it, or if it lets me write in the tab- it erases my documentation

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Very reliable, low cost platform for image transfer. Was very responsive to our needs for a custom solution and enabled us to build a high reliability, custom business to business service

Cons
Sometimes we want to do things that the service is not designed to do, but generally the team is very good about working with us to resolve.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Configuring for VNA is straight forward and reliable. The image viewer has a lot of features such as window leveling, annotating, zooming all while keeping an intuitive layout. The exam and patient information is clearly visible. Collaboration is quick and simple. Customization of the features is easy based on user role set up or Ambra support. Image and report sharing to a patient is uncomplicated and the registration for patients to view their images is simple.

Cons
Load time for tomos is slow, though it is most probably inherent with cloud systems given the file sizes.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I like that the software is user friendly. Makes sending images electronically much easier and less time consuming. I can send request to receive images and send images simply by using an email. The one time I had difficulty with a set of images their customer support was very helpful in resolving the issue in a timely manner.

Cons
The software doesn't work well with Internet Explorer. It times out or the images fail to send. It is best to use Google Chrome.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I mostly use it to view images in conjunction with our EMR. Load times for images are OK, but definitely could be improved. The user interface is relatively easy to use.

Cons
Sometimes can be difficult to link shared planes in images so you can scroll them together for comparison and this could be improved. Would like images to load faster and should stay loaded even if you more to another set of images. That way if you come back it doesn't have to load them again.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 6/10

Pros
The best thing about this software is the ease of sending and receiving images. For the most part, that works pretty seamlessly. The interface is intuitive and easily accessible as well.

Cons
It's a little clunky when looking at images. When actually in the study, the interface is more confusing, I can't tell what thumbnails along the bottom belong with the study. The software takes a very long time to burn onto a disc and takes up a ton of space on the CD.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
The quality of images and the expediency of sending the results

Cons
I don't have any negative feedback about this product.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10