Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y., has begun using a cloud-based service to share medical images among multiple physicians without entering them into the healthcare system's picture archiving and communication system (PACS), according to an article in InformationWeek.
These are images that the Montefiore specialists use in their review of referrals before they accept patients for treatment. The images, which may arrive on disc or film, have not been entered into the PACS. In case more than one physician has to view the images, the other doctors can pull them down from the cloud rather than waiting for the physical media to be delivered.
The cloud-based imaging platform comes from LifeImage, which offers a suite of online image-sharing products. Physicians can securely view the images on their iPads or other mobile devices.
LifeImage's service might also be used in research, Mony Weschler, director of ancillary informatics at Montefiore, told InformationWeek. For example, he said, Montefiore could send images from its PACS to LifeImage, which could make it available to researchers in other medical centers across the country. Email could never handle files of this size, he noted.
The use of remotely hosted platforms for sharing data-intensive images has been spreading recently. Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., has even ordered a cloud-based RIS/PACS.
To learn more:
- read the InformationWeek story
- visit the LifeImage website