Many medical imaging practices have been looking for new ways to appropriately store and manage databases. The digitization of health information, driven by the advent of electronic health records, has lead to an exponential increase in the amount of data available to physicians. By now, many radiologists are turning to cloud computing as a viable solution.
Radiology Business Journal reported that, at the annual meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine in Long Beach, California, Web-friendly versions of DICOM and HL-7 were tested in front of the “Hackathon” audience. These services hope to expedite the development of applications for digital imaging while maintaining the standard-based framework of DICOM.
At the Hackathon event, an assortment of IT specialists utilized a handful of apps that were developed within the last month, which were capable of accessing multiple databases to generate one central view of the desired data.
“This is probably the most important thing that has happened in our world since DICOM has come onto the scene,” said Don Dennison, consultant and Hackathon organizer, quoted by the news source. “Image sharing and including images in the EHR are the two areas that are going to benefit the most.”
Many physicians find DICOM to be challenging, and the introduction of a Web-based product will have many positive outcomes for the health care industry. It can speed up improvements in functionality, allowing radiologists to access more images from a wider range of modalities than previously possible. Additionally, it would cast a larger net when it comes to attracting programmers to work in the field of medicine. These individuals can facilitate the implementation of solutions that operate on the Internet, leveraging the power of the Web to improve health services.
The capabilities demonstrated by the programmers is comparable to a diagnostic imaging specialist wanting to check the health information exchange portal of his or her region, but lacking a consistent LAN or VPN connection. Using the app developed by the Hackathon participants, a radiologist could pull data from complete patient records over the Internet and present them as one system.
Flying into the clouds
Diagnostic Imaging explained that the software tools available in a private cloud platform can support a large amount of apps to benefit radiologists. It can be shared by a group of organizations to facilitate the continuum of care across disparate practices.
The cloud can bring numerous advantages to medical facilities, including lower IT expenses, improved image storage management and easier access to servers. Operating a Web-based PACS system would allow physicians to stream information to handheld devices like smartphones and tablets, increasing the clinical mobility of the practice. With the rapid expansion of data and growing need for improved storage, radiologists need a better and cheaper way to mitigate imaging data.
While the bandwidth required to transition images to cloud-based services is substantial, the improvements would be integral to health care reform. Being able to recall images for interpretation in mere seconds would greatly benefit doctors and patients alike and lead to considerable gains in practice performance.
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Ronny Bachrach
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