Enterprise imaging in the cloud, which unifies access to clinical imaging and data across an organization, allows healthcare organizations to innovate, reduce costs, improve efficiency and enhance patient care.
During a March 29 webinar hosted by Becker's Hospital Review and sponsored by Change Healthcare, Eliot Siegel, MD, discussed the vital role cloud innovation plays in imaging. Dr. Siegel is chief of radiology and nuclear medicine at Baltimore-based Veterans Affairs Maryland Healthcare System and professor and vice chair of research information systems for the department of diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine at Baltimore-based University of Maryland School of Medicine. The webinar was moderated by Tracy Byers, senior vice president and general manager of enterprise imaging at Change Healthcare.
With imaging at the heart of the healthcare delivery system, executives and clinicians alike are seeking a space that gives them the ability to quickly access healthcare data when and where they need it without a complex interface.
Two key considerations in cloud strategy that Dr. Siegel shared during the webinar:
1. How it influences patient care
Enterprise imaging in the cloud allows healthcare systems and hospitals to do things they couldn't before, Dr. Siegel said. One of the new possibilities includes taking all images and stacking them on top of each other instead of viewing them successively in static form, Dr. Siegel explained, adding that it's almost like watching a movie. This makes it easier to identify abnormalities. The imaging system also allows more images to be read in the same time period. Amid the pandemic, the cloud's potential for elasticity has been helpful as patient volumes rise and fall. For all these reasons, enterprise imaging improves patient care.
2. Security
Hospitals may be less secure than other, more secure third-party vendors, Dr. Siegel said. It may be easier to access data in hospital systems than in third-party clouds. As hackers get more sophisticated, hospitals are going to require an even higher level of expertise and security, according to Dr. Siegel, which is why it doesn't make sense for each individual hospital or healthcare system to maintain security. It makes more sense to outsource security, so health organizations can focus on patient care.
For more information on Strategic Planning for the Cloud, visit here. To view the full webinar, click here.