by
Carol Ko, Staff Writer | February 20, 2014
From the January/February 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
A solution to this problem is cloud-based computing in which users are able to pay for software as a service, otherwise known as on-demand software. Because applications are delivered as a service over the Internet, users can pay on a pay-per-use model.
Facilities are able to avoid paying huge upfront costs by using remote image viewing software and information systems, meaning multiple hospitals can share standard software, infrastructure, storage, and processing power. This also simplifies things like maintenance and troubleshooting, further reducing costs. “There are economies of scale in the cloud – with the provisioning of space for accounts — so there are cost efficiencies,” says BRIT Systems’ Sallam.
Amber Casarez, senior marketing specialist with RamSoft, Inc. agrees. “Cloud services for RIS and PACS are ideal for end users looking for a low cost-of-entry for a new radiology workflow solution,” she says. “Cloud services also free up in-house IT staff from daily server maintenance and offer such features as co-location, redundancy and advanced security measures to protect data from security breaches and environmental catastrophes.”
David Smarro, president and CEO of Infinitt, also sees Cloud services as the future, with the company tailoring solutions to meet a variety of requirements. “We have added new data centers to meet Omnibus, HIPAA and SSAE16,” he says.
Additionally, the flexibility of what health IT experts call “anywhere, anytime” access to medical data allows radiologists to report remotely from outside the hospital. And it also provides a consistent viewing platform no matter what PACS is delivering the images. “The cloud is what you want it to be, it is an environment that can be used for storing data or accessing applications and information from virtually anywhere in the world,” says Sallam. “It is a sound option to complement and for some institutions, possibly even replace brick and mortar based solutions."
Me and my iPad
But many radiologists want to take things a step further than integrated workstations or cloud-based computing — they want to be able to bypass the workstation altogether and view patient studies from their iPads and mobile devices, too. Though newer PACS offer mobile access, PACS more than five years old require upgrades and updates to offer the same functionality.
“In a way, radiology PACS systems are variations of what they’ve been for the past 10 years, you need to buy little add-ons to make them do what you want to do,” says Michael Gray, principal of Gray Consulting. “Some PACS systems have no idea that anything else exists other than what they acquired,” Gray says.
