Health care providers from every corner of the industry, including medical imaging specialists, are looking for new ways to engage and empower patients. The issue lies in developing adequate strategies to get them invested in their own care by sharing pertinent health information securely through the Web.
In the past, image sharing was handled through the physical mailing of films and CDs to disparate practices, where radiologists would upload the data into a PACS system for review. However, the new future of this process is approaching as providers turn to cloud-based software for sharing capabilities that aim to advance and improve care. The adoption of this technology has been fueled by the advent of health IT, like electronic medical records and health information exchanges.
Vendors have begun working to include robust Web-based image sharing in their products, developing them into a market separate from EMRs and HIEs. These updated services have the potential to establish a digital workflow that would replace the need to physically mail items to other facilities.
“All this is essentially moving images from within an enterprise to outside the organization. It’s much broader usage than what we were doing three years ago,” said Nadim Daher, industry analyst for Frost and Sullivan North American Healthcare Practice, quoted by Diagnostic Imaging. “We were doing ad hoc image share from point-to-point – it was the 1.0 of integrating image sharing into daily clinical workflow. But, information sharing is starting to proliferate. This is where we are now.”
Cloud-based solutions have grown as projected by various organizations, such as the business intelligence firm GlobalData, which predicted in 2012 that the service would increase by 27 percent before 2018. In 2008, Merrill Lynch estimated that cloud sharing would be worth roughly $56.5 million in the imaging market. The ultimate goal of the Web-based system is to reduce the amount of redundant studies that can occur from limited sharing and drive up health care costs.
Walking the path of the future Not only does the ability to share Digital Imaging results help providers meet the requirements of Meaningful Use, but it can also be instrumental in improving patient care. The workflow capabilities it offers allows physicians to bolster their productivity, as images can be easily uploaded and shared to the database.
Emergency care centers have become one of the most popular adopters of cloud-based storage, as being able to immediately pull up health histories and procedure results can make the difference in administering treatments that save lives. Additionally, physicians in these emergency settings could quickly contact off-site specialists for further consultations on previous images.
Many health IT software vendors are beginning to reshape their software, as well, to accommodate for cloud-based sharing. Integrating the service into their products means that radiologists can begin to leverage the technology for the benefit of both physicians and patients. As more facilities look to expand their mobile health capabilities, the adoption of cloud image sharing could increase at an exponential rate.
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Ronny Bachrach
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