With cloud, the sky’s the limit for image management

So why are healthcare enterprises finally adopting the cloud for medical image management?

Depending on who you talk to, ‘cloud computing’ has been around for 15 years, 20 years, or even longer. Yet healthcare has been notoriously slow to adopt this technology.

But as medical image acquisition continues to grow at an amazing rate, and hospitals move from departmental to multi-specialty image management, cloud offers a solution for increased image and data security, scalability and accessibility.

Cloud for medical image management offers a solution that is simpler to maintain and use. 

1. Elasticity and scalability match evolving needs, without purchasing more hardware.

2. Cloud providers take on the responsibility for data protection and security, and maintain the in-house expertise and services to do so.

3. Costs are more controllable and predictable.

4. Simplifying image management helps reduce the hospital’s in-house IT burden, so you don’t need to look for your own IT experts, who can be hard to find.

For over a decade, Agfa HealthCare has offered Cloud Services to help healthcare organizations simplify their image archiving and management. As the cloud environment has evolved, so have our solutions, bringing new opportunities and benefits to match your strategy and vision. Learn more on the available cloud for medical image management solutions:

Using the cloud as your long-term archive

For example, with Cloud Storage, you can combine your on-premise Enterprise Imaging systems with a public cloud to solve your long-term storage challenges. By making the cloud your archive, there’s no need for tapes and discs to store historical patient imaging data, no need for storage planning, no out-of-pocket investments in hardware, and no data migration when that hardware reaches its end-of-life.

As your imaging data increases, your cloud storage grows with you, but you only pay when you actually use the storage – not before. And your imaging data is kept safe and accessible, giving your clinical users the consistent, continuous availability they need to deliver quality patient care.

Using the cloud to enhance image availability and accessibility

With the massive jump in demand for solutions to support remote working, we have now launched a new cloud service: Cloud VNA and XERO Viewer. With this service, all your Enterprise Imaging VNA hardware servers, XERO Viewer web servers and Enterprise Imaging database can be deployed off-premise, on a public cloud. You just connect your on-premise PACS to the cloud VNA, and your storage needs are taken care of. The XERO Universal Viewer makes sure the imaging data can be accessed and shared across the enterprise, enhancing collaboration.

With data protection and security outsourced to your cloud provider, you reduce the risk of data breaches, DDoS attacks, outages and data loss. And even if your on-premise PACS goes down, all the images in the cloud remain accessible through XERO. So, there’s no delay for patient care while you get your PACS back up and running.

As your needs evolve, whether from a change in image volume or you expand your business through an acquisition or merger, your VNA elastically scales on-demand, to always fit your needs perfectly. And by simplifying your image management, it reduces your in-house IT burdens – including navigating the job market looking for highly qualified IT experts!

What’s in the cards for cloud?

With all the benefits cloud can offer healthcare enterprises, we are continuing to develop new and expanded cloud for medical image management services for our customers. Our work-in-progress Cloud Enterprise Imaging is the next step on the road to unleashing rationalization and flexibility. With your Enterprise Imaging platform fully deployed in the cloud, clinicians have anywhere/anytime access to their workflows. Images can be rendered directly in the cloud, reducing the uploading and downloading of files, and further controlling costs. And you still enjoy those benefits of scalability, reduced IT burden, enhanced data protection and security!

Whichever Cloud for medical image management service fits your strategy, you aren’t embarking on this journey alone. Our strategic consulting and planning services help make your transition to cloud-based solutions smooth and straightforward.

Want to find out more?

Access the 30 minute Cloud and VNA Virtual Lecture, presented by Charles Morris, Director Enterprise Imaging, Agfa HealthCare.
Find out how our customizable Cloud Services can help your hospital benefit from on-demand scalability, simplified IT administration and security peace of mind!

For the full suite of technology innovations in Enterprise Imaging and more expert insights, access the other 5 Virtual Lectures: 

• Enterprise Imaging 8.2. – Innovation in the new release – Access here
• Augmented Intelligence – Embedding AI into Clinical Programs to Improve Diagnostic Intelligence – Access here
• Integration of Enterprise Imaging and Microsoft Teams – Access here
• Redefining Radiology – Findings of Frost & Sullivan Research Paper – Access here
• UK & Ireland Special Lecture – Integrated Care Systems (ICS) for Health Delivery in the UK and Ireland – Access here