The PACS market has grown over the last 10 years as the various procedures and image formats have evolved. To keep up with the proliferation of data, many healthcare professionals are developing a centralized image storage process to help them share the images and control costs in the process.
The process requires a vendor neutral archive (VNA) that can collate and manage the images and data as well as store it. It’s estimated that of the nearly 1.5 billion studies gathered through PACS a couple years ago, around 75 million (5.5 percent) were kept in VNAs. But by 2016, the number of studies being stored in VNAs is expected to hit 30-plus percent. The benefits of using seem clear to those that have utilized them and many more are joining in to see the same benefits.
VNAs in the centralized image storage process are used for disaster recovery and long-term storage through an open-architecture format that allows non-imaging applications and modalities access to the data. Hospitals of all sizes are utilizing VNAs simply for the cost savings associated with storing data there. There are also costs associated with storing data, and using VNAs also can help to lower those costs.
Hospitals and other healthcare facilities also use centralized image storage and VNAs so that they can share images across departments from a single source. Upwards of 65 percent of VNA studies carried out in 2011 showed that facilities were operating under level 2 or 2.1, which proves that there is a need to consolidate and centralize so that data can more easily be shared from department to department.
VNA storage capacity is currently pushed to the limit as there is an increasing need to store non-image related data along with the image data. Facilities are looking to incorporate a full enterprise solution and this means there is a need for a large capacity storage facility. Some industry experts believe that by 2016, the amount of data that will need to be stored in VNAs will jump to 114 petabytes, which is just under the 140 petabytes expected to be stored in non-VNA PACS by 2016.
The few healthcare facilities that haven’t switched to centrally storing their medical images in a digital format are certainly looking into it now. While the process of transitioning is expensive, the long-term savings are enticing. But the transition doesn’t have to break the bank. There are vendors out there that can work with even the smallest, rural facilities to bring them up to speed with the current technology.
OffSite Image Management, Inc., specializes in VNAs and off site storage as well as disaster recovery solutions. The VNA services at OffSite help hospitals, particularly the rural hospitals and radiology departments, handle major challenges they face in adopting an imaging data center. When a healthcare facility adopts a PACS solution, there are limitations in its ability to share. OffSite helps wipe out these limitations with true VNA solutions.