Back to School Cloud Shopping?
Ah, the back to school supplies checklist. As an avid fan of organization, I always longed for those Staples back to school lists every year. Publishing a set list is a great and effective way for schools to keep students well-prepared and organized. Do you ever wish you had a similar list for big purchases related to home or work? It can be quite stressful to navigate the world of big purchase decisions. Especially among new industries, such as Cloud-based technology, the checklist can become even more overwhelming. We’ve pulled together a few lists to simplify things for you. Let’s start with the basics, when should you consider a Cloud medical image management solution for your facility?
Checked one of these off? Okay, time for the next step. What are the four key components of a Cloud image management solution?
Holistic Cloud solutions will be built on four pillars of image management: workflows, archiving, viewing, and exchange. This can be easily remembered by the acronym WAVE.
Workflow automation is a powerful tool and an integral part of an image management strategy. You can leverage routing rules to automate your workflow and share studies across organizations, locations, groups, or users. You can also send studies to specified PACS, modalities, or viewing stations, based on user-defined parameters. Cloud-based sharing solutions like DICOM Grid support image transfers and uploads from a variety of inputs. Web upload and transfers are leveraged in cases of ad-hoc referrals, pre-visit patient uploads, and electronic second opinion portals. Gateway software can be set-up to facilitate point-to-point connections through the Cloud to transfer from DICOM modalities and PACS, as well as RIS via HL7. Learn more here.
Cloud PACS offer a low-cost vendor neutral way to access and prune data. The central repository includes easy to use search functions, and a built in disaster recovery mode which is a crucial feature for organizations that need access to imaging for business continuity. Learn more here.
The old method of image viewing kept you stuck to a workstation. With a zero footprint viewer, images can be accessed and viewed on a range of devices, including computers, mobile devices, and tablets. Remote access is key for convenience and collaboration. We’ve even introduced an exciting feature that allows physicians to host meetings in the viewer.
CDs, the traditional method of exchanging images, are expensive, frequently incompatible, and easily lost. Countless use cases exist in a Cloud image management system that allow users to share studies as a patient or provider and within the facility and outside of it. Physicians can generate a link from an uploaded image to share to referring physicians. They simply follow the on-screen instructions to upload and share the DICOMs and reports over to you in real-time. As mentioned with workflows, for any high-volume referring sites such as a hospital or imaging center in your network, a gateway allows them to send directly from their PACS. Learn more here.
Officially, interested? Now, one final list. Be sure to be cautious when navigating the world of image management vendors. You’ll want a Cloud vendor, not a Cloud pretender!
True: Secure and HIPAA compliant
Pretender: Not secure and not HIPAA compliant
True: Off-Premise
Pretender: On-Premise
True: Hardware is not required
Pretender: You need hardware
True: Yes–continued and continuous
Pretender: Yes–but you have to pay for them.
True: Customizations are carried over with each new release
Pretender: Updates are lost
True: Built on an open architecture
Pretender: Not built on open API
True: An in-house development team
Pretender: Outsourced
Does the Cloud confuse you? Still filled with questions? Download our eBook to learn more.
Catherine Slotnick is a passionate healthcare marketer with a deep interest in the latest & greatest in the Health IT space. As Ambra Health's Director of Marketing, Catherine primarily focuses on creating and sharing thought leadership content in the radiology and informatics space. Catherine graduated from the University of Virginia with a BA in Psychology & Art History. When she's not writing, she enjoys cooking and petting dogs that aren't hers.
