Cloud-Based Service Allows Simple, Secure Access to Archived Data by Remote Clinicians

A new health portal service provides a cost-effective way to enhance collaboration efforts.

Carestream Health, Inc. (Rochester, NY, USA) is offering a new addition to its range of cloud-based Carestream eHealth Managed Services (eMS). The new eHealth portal service enables healthcare providers that use the company's remote eHealth Archive Services to allow access to that data by any authorized user anywhere in the world through a simple Internet connection. As a result, this new service provides cost-effective data sharing and collaboration among healthcare providers, imaging centers, radiologists, referring physicians, and other clinicians or staff. The service will be available in Europe and the United States in early 2011.

"This service breaks new ground by transforming patient information and images archived in our data centers for disaster recovery into a tool that can be used for remote reading of exams by radiologists and viewing of patient data by authorized clinicians,” said Patrick Koch, Carestream Health's worldwide business director of eHealth managed services. "This is a very affordable way for healthcare systems and larger institutions to overcome access barriers created by disparate PACS [picture archiving and communication system], RIS [radiology information system], and other clinical systems, while providing a full scope of services through a single consolidated access point,” he added.

Large healthcare institutions with multiple sites can send images and other information to one of Carestream Health's data centers and use the eHealth portal to enable viewing of patient information by authorized users at all sites. The new service also allows small to mid-size hospitals, imaging centers, and physicians to share data between the providers involved in a patient's diagnosis and treatment.

With the eHealth portal service, radiologists can perform cloud-based reading of exams using advanced diagnostic tools and can access patient information including previous exams. The portal also provides viewing of reports and key images for referring physicians, eliminating the need for distribution of CDs, which is costly, inefficient, and much too slow for today's healthcare environment.

"This affordable cloud-based service streamlines radiology workflows. Healthcare providers gain an affordable way to access and share data without investing in additional personnel and IT systems. It also eliminates obstacles created by outdated technology that restricts or prohibits radiologist and clinician access to off-site imaging studies,” Mr. Koch explained.

Carestream eHealth managed services offers cloud-based healthcare information technology that is available on a pay-as-you-go basis using a predictable price-per-study structure. In addition to the new eHealth portal, this range of services also includes secure, remote archiving for disaster recovery/business continuity, and a PACS service that combines advanced functionality with reduced investment in capital equipment, security technology and management personnel.

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