PACS System in a New Light
Technology is constantly changing. Radiologists and healthcare IT professionals know this well. The PACS system is also undergoing changes that have an impact on just about everyone in the healthcare industry, whether they know it or not. For instance, some PACS systems are beefing up their workflow engines, giving them the ability to share medical images across departments for the first time.
Healthcare professionals realize that if they’re going to provide the best patient care possible, they need more flexibility in how they share data. The traditional PACS are mired in proprietary roadblocks, and that’s something that the industry is working to avoid moving forward.
The PACS market has actually seen some changes over the past few years, mostly in an effort to improve the overall PACS experience for the user. The reason for the changes is that there is a heightened need for speed while data continues to grow and mobility is becoming a common request.
As for speed, this area is partially driven by a need to make reimbursements a value-based proposition rather than volume-based. This means that radiologists are looking for more efficiencies to improve productivity.
The amount of data is growing due to the popularity and regular use of PET, MR and 3D reconstructions. These are big, big files, which are difficult to manage when the PACS is outdated.
People also want mobility, and they get it with just about everything else in their lives with smart phones and tablets. Why can’t medical images also be displayed on these devices? PACS vendors and others are working on solutions for that, and some have done quite well in providing users with the mobility they want.
While vendors are working to improve their PACS system, others are working with cloud-based technology to provide all the solutions today’s radiologists are looking for. With a cloud-based solution managed by an offsite vendor, hospitals gain a number of advantages, including mobility, speed and practically limitless space to store images.
In-house servers that are used to archive and access image data must be monitored and maintained by on-site IT personnel. Should a major malfunction occur or a natural disaster strike, that data is potentially lost forever. But with an offsite image management company taking over, there is no maintenance required by the on-site IT personnel, and the data is backed up in various other datacenters that are geographically diverse.
When you work with an offsite provider, you don’t have to think about replacing your PACS with one that has all the latest and greatest updates, which actually come at a great cost. In fact, with an offsite vendor, you have the potential to save money while improving your workflow.
OffSite Image Management, Inc. has led the way in cloud-based image management solutions. We work with healthcare providers large and small to give them better access to their medical images while also providing them with business continuity they can’t get through an on-site solution. Contact us today and we’ll explain why we consider ourselves a 360-degree solution.