Efforts to create a medical imaging mega-cloud are in the works, according to an article published this week in The Register. Researchers at Peake Healthcare Innovations (a collaborative venture between Johns Hopkins University and Harris Corp.), VMware, and Intel are teaming up on the project, which ultimately could become a nationwide central warehouse.
The Johns Hopkins hospital system essentially will serve as a testing ground for project prior to a nationwide rollout, according to The Register. A full private cloud version of PeakeSecure--Peake's medical records cloud--will be rolled out at Johns Hopkins next month, with a public version set for completion by in the next several months, according to Jim Philbin, Peake's chief technology officer. Philbin also serves as co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Biomedical and Imaging Informatics.
Intel technology will enable the visualization of medical imaging, according to a statement from Intel Worldwide Director of Health IT Rick Cnossen in a joint announcement from Peake and VMware. The technology, Cnossen said, allows for "cloud-computing usage models that synergize compute power, performance and protection," which ultimately helps with cost control and security efforts.
Initially, three managed data centers will serve the East coast, according to The Register, with three more data centers to follow to serve the remainder of the nation.
In similar news, Siemens Healthcare and Dell are planning to collaborate on their own medical image archiving and sharing service, according to AuntMinnie.com. Siemens will use Dell's Unified Clinical Archive software on a cloud-based platform to be called Siemens Image Sharing and Archiving.
"We see changes in the market occurring for a need for imaging data that are different from what a classic radiology or cardiology [picture archiving and communication systems] can offer," Siemens Vice President of Business Management Kurt Reiff told AuntMinnie.com. "With the proliferation of mobile access to data through smartphones and tablet PCs, and with the steady explosion of digital data stimulated by electronic health record adoption initiatives, the market is changing."
For more information:
- read this article in The Register
- here's the Peake/VMware announcement
- check out the AuntMinnie.com piece