Why Adopt Cloud Computing in healthcare?
Basically, we can’t afford not to. Cloud hosting brings significant benefits to the medical imaging arena by saving time and money while delivering infinite patient care benefits.
1. www.i-cloudinc.com | info@i-cloudinc.com | CARIBBEAN 592.668.7947 | USA: 817.400.6403 | CANADA: 647. 955.6718
iCloud Leverages the Cloud in
Healthcare
Improving Patient Care in Remote, Rural and
Emerging Economies
By: Melissa Carrie
The arrival of digital imaging has led to a revolution within the
medical arena. Typically larger medical centers with large
budgets in developed countries have been the benefactors of
the development of Picture Archiving and Communication
Systems (PACS). With beginnings in the 80’s that typically
served single functions, the development of PACS over the
next two decades flourished considerably playing an essential
role throughout medical enterprises. PACS historically has
represented the integration of image acquisition devices,
display workstations and storage systems all connected via a
computer network. Today most healthcare departments
perform some form of digital radiology and the global
diagnostic imaging market is in the billions driven by
advancement in the field and increasing awareness about
preventative care. Significant development to PACS has
occurred with a key factor being that the large investment in
capital equipment and ongoing resources needed to manage
the equipment is no longer required. With the numerous
benefits PACS brings to the medical industry and the
importance it plays in patient diagnosis and outcome,
adoption is inevitable.
There has been a significant disconnect globally with the
ability for all healthcare facilities to be able to implement and
benefit from a PACS solution. A majority of remote, rural and
emerging economies have faced numerous challenges that
restricted them from attempting to take on a project of such
magnitude. Shipping, parts and labor of required capital
equipment, lack of resources to be able to operate and
manage it, internet access that won’t support a large scale
PACS are only a few of the barriers to entry that have existed.
Most importantly, the initial start-up costs are not within the
budgets of many healthcare facilities including those within
industrialized countries.
Anytime, Anywhere On-Demand access to your medical images
Today anyone with Internet access can now skip the
significant investment required to implement on-site
equipment required by traditional PACS all together and go
straight to the cloud. Globally we are highly connected
through technologies such as the worldwide web, through text
messaging and mobile phones and are carrying the internet in
our pockets on mobile devices. There is a lot of excitement
around Cloud services and the initiatives it brings with it. In
the medical industry, this technology revolution helps
overcome some of the disparity issues we’ve been faced with
by bringing new opportunities and major changes for
improvements to healthcare globally.
Why Adopt Cloud Computing in
healthcare?
Basically, we can’t afford not to. Cloud hosting brings huge
benefits to the medical imaging arena by saving time and
money while delivering infinite patient care benefits. Cloud
brings with it a strategy that embraces the power of the Web,
zero-footprint client applications, and an extensive PACS
solution inclusive of transfer, interpretation, storage and
distribution of diagnostic quality images on-demand,
anywhere.
2. www.i-cloudinc.com | info@i-cloudinc.com | CARIBBEAN 592.668.7947 | USA: 817.400.6403 | CANADA: 647. 955.6718
Affordable
Solutions such as iCloud WebPACS offer a turnkey solution
with nothing to install and no need to invest in hardware or IT
resources. In a turbulent economy it’s even more important to
pay for only what you use. Your data is secure with back-up
and upgrades handled remotely for you including full
redundancies that meet security and regulation standards of
even the most restrictive countries. As health care
organizations throughout the world begin to generate filmless
strategies, you save on the rising cost of medical film while
contributing to helping the environment. The quality of
images is impacted when images are transferred to CD’s for a
radiological study and the diagnostic quality video on DVD are
good but short of high definition. A cloud based PACS
technology allows you to save on the cost of media while
keeping the high resolution needed for diagnostic purposes.
Robust Clinical Workflow
While existing on-site PACS solutions are faced with
challenges of being able to communicate amongst each other,
Software-as-a-service (SaaS), a general term for anything that
involves delivering hosted services over the Internet, enables
medical enterprises to have a full PACS solution without
limitations. In this era of distributed digital imaging, there are
critical needs for healthcare to have the ability to not just
access images at the point of care, but also to be able to view
from any and often multiple locations. Being able to interface
and complement existing PACS, zero footprint cloud based
PACS providers unite healthcare providing additional
efficiency and flexibility. Through scalability, your system
grows whenever needed. Cloud computing is a promising IT
service delivery model with a computer and access to the
internet being all you need. Web services and broadband
internet have matured significantly over the last five years
with important preconditions for cloud computing being met
including in emerging countries. With this, a virtual PACS
solution is now an option.
Ideal for Mission Critical Healthcare
Performance is accelerated improving patient communication
and care through access to a full suite of image interpretation,
management and billing tools allowing for a faster and more
accurate diagnosis. Cloud solutions such as iCloud WebPACS
enable you to transfer images within a few seconds for any
type of modality, providing access to information needed to
make informed patient care decisions. Rich representation of
your medical scans including radiology information system
(RIS), electronic medical records (EMR) and image archiving
are available to users when they are needed from any
location. For facilities that don’t have a radiologist on-site or in
the country, a cloud based PACS solution provides instant
access to teams of specialized radiologist across the globe that
offer their services available 24 hours a day.
iCloud offers medical Imaging iCloud WebPACS, a state-of-the-art Cloud
service that unites healthcare facilities and authorized medical
professionals globally through a standard web browser.
iCloud WebPACS brings with it all the benefits a traditional
on-premise PACS offers with added peace of mind. Instead of
having individual IT resources for each organization, a cloud
computing solution delivers services to multiple organizations
sharing the IT resources provided by the vendor. Traditional
PACS with on-premise equipment runs at a small percentage
of its full capacity so that it is available if needed.
Alternatively, a Cloud PACS provides required IT capacity that
is always available with an already installed instantly usable
service and you pay only for what you use. Cloud computing
solutions bring substantial economic benefits and significant
increased efficiency for facilities that don’t currently have a
PACS solution including those in remote, rural and emerging
economies. For facilities that are preparing to replace their
existing PACS technology which has a lifespan of a few years
but comes with continued ongoing support and licensing fees,
Cloud offers a leading edge solution that is a departure from
the traditional IT service delivery model you are accustomed
to and it’s ready for your experienced opinion and evaluation.
Thanks to the cloud, benefits extend beyond geographically
diverse radiology operations and provide a smooth transition
due to its capability of being able to complement existing
PACS globally.
To participate in a free live trial and the opportunity to view your own
images, evaluate the diagnostic tools and experience our user-friendly
technology visit: http://www.i-cloudinc.com/contact.html.