The perks of cloud-based archiving
January 11, 2013
Need for cost-effective, consolidated archiving prompts CIOs/CTOs to consider cloud services
By Bruce Leidal
Health care CIOs face a daunting combination: explosive growth in patient data, the need to comply with meaningful use initiatives and budget constraints driven by sagging revenues and an unstable economy. Cloud-based archiving services promise to help health care organizations address these incompatible realities.
CIOs are eager to avoid the cost of rapidly escalating investments in existing proprietary departmental archives. We all recognize that replacing departmental storage silos with a consolidated archive is an urgent need. As it turns out, that conversion is greatly expedited by converting to managed and/or cloud-based services.
Cloud archiving allows health care systems to consolidate storage of radiology, cardiology, pathology and other types of files. CIOs can work closely with managers and administrators of multiple departments throughout the hospital to verify that a prospective archiving service supports the file types used by each department, including DICOM, JPG, MPEG, PDF, BMP, DOC, and XLS.
From a financial perspective, purchasing archiving as a pay-per-use service eliminates the need for up front capital investment in storage capacity that is usually oversized for future growth. Traditional archiving also requires ongoing costs to support upgrades, service and maintenance agreements. Yet, with a pay-per-use service in place, CIOs can accurately predict costs based on current and projected imaging/data volumes. The services provider assumes responsibility for continuously updating storage hardware and software as well as developing security processes and procedures that address current regulatory standards. The cloud also offers an affordable method for achieving business continuity and disaster recovery for all data. It’s the ideal model for an offsite data center.
Enhanced data access sharing
Hospitals, imaging centers and other health care facilities are experiencing dramatic growth in data generation and storage, driven in part by 3D modalities such as CT and MR. These imaging technologies produce more detailed diagnostic information, but they require vast storage resources: each patient study can be as large as 150 megabytes. New imaging technologies can be expected to deliver even greater amounts of data as new features and functions are added. Health care providers must also be able to quickly and easily deliver large imaging files to radiologists, physicians and specialists. And that brings up another benefit of vendor-neutral cloud services: they allow patient information and images to be easily shared with authorized users. Cloud solutions are flexible: they may be integrated into on-premise information management systems, EMR/EHR solutions, and deliver interoperability requirements that are part of achieving meaningful use. Services that support zero-footprint viewers expedite clinicians’ access to images and reports via iPads, PCs or workstations.
Access to large teams of health care IT experts
Increased governmental regulation is another concern. Cloud services providers have large teams of highly trained health care IT professionals who are charged with ensuring compliance with evolving meaningful use regulations. While an on-site IT staff will still be required, CIOs should consider leveraging cloud providers that have the scale to support large development and support teams dedicated to testing and adopting the latest health care IT hardware and software technology. These experts can develop processes to address meaningful use regulations, create methods to communicate with a variety of systems and formats, and deploy the highest levels of encryption technology and security procedures available.
A final advantage of cloud-based archiving is its ability to support changing demands and address various levels of service. That makes it equally available and affordable for imaging centers and mid-sized hospitals as well as large health care systems. All health care providers can appreciate services that include ongoing technology refreshment and easily accommodate a growth or decrease in imaging volumes.
Unprecedented data growth, government regulations and cost and investment constraints could be called the perfect storm. The irony is that “cloud” services may help CIOs survive, and even thrive, during these difficult times.
About the author: Bruce Leidal, Carestream’s CIO, streamlined business processes through the consolidation of over 300 core applications and led the successful implementation of more than 60 major projects. He previously served as CIO of Hayes Lemmerz, International (HLI), a $2.4 billion global automotive supplier, and held executive positions at General Motors, Federal-Mogul Corporation and several other companies.
By Bruce Leidal
Health care CIOs face a daunting combination: explosive growth in patient data, the need to comply with meaningful use initiatives and budget constraints driven by sagging revenues and an unstable economy. Cloud-based archiving services promise to help health care organizations address these incompatible realities.
CIOs are eager to avoid the cost of rapidly escalating investments in existing proprietary departmental archives. We all recognize that replacing departmental storage silos with a consolidated archive is an urgent need. As it turns out, that conversion is greatly expedited by converting to managed and/or cloud-based services.
Cloud archiving allows health care systems to consolidate storage of radiology, cardiology, pathology and other types of files. CIOs can work closely with managers and administrators of multiple departments throughout the hospital to verify that a prospective archiving service supports the file types used by each department, including DICOM, JPG, MPEG, PDF, BMP, DOC, and XLS.
From a financial perspective, purchasing archiving as a pay-per-use service eliminates the need for up front capital investment in storage capacity that is usually oversized for future growth. Traditional archiving also requires ongoing costs to support upgrades, service and maintenance agreements. Yet, with a pay-per-use service in place, CIOs can accurately predict costs based on current and projected imaging/data volumes. The services provider assumes responsibility for continuously updating storage hardware and software as well as developing security processes and procedures that address current regulatory standards. The cloud also offers an affordable method for achieving business continuity and disaster recovery for all data. It’s the ideal model for an offsite data center.
Enhanced data access sharing
Hospitals, imaging centers and other health care facilities are experiencing dramatic growth in data generation and storage, driven in part by 3D modalities such as CT and MR. These imaging technologies produce more detailed diagnostic information, but they require vast storage resources: each patient study can be as large as 150 megabytes. New imaging technologies can be expected to deliver even greater amounts of data as new features and functions are added. Health care providers must also be able to quickly and easily deliver large imaging files to radiologists, physicians and specialists. And that brings up another benefit of vendor-neutral cloud services: they allow patient information and images to be easily shared with authorized users. Cloud solutions are flexible: they may be integrated into on-premise information management systems, EMR/EHR solutions, and deliver interoperability requirements that are part of achieving meaningful use. Services that support zero-footprint viewers expedite clinicians’ access to images and reports via iPads, PCs or workstations.
Access to large teams of health care IT experts
Increased governmental regulation is another concern. Cloud services providers have large teams of highly trained health care IT professionals who are charged with ensuring compliance with evolving meaningful use regulations. While an on-site IT staff will still be required, CIOs should consider leveraging cloud providers that have the scale to support large development and support teams dedicated to testing and adopting the latest health care IT hardware and software technology. These experts can develop processes to address meaningful use regulations, create methods to communicate with a variety of systems and formats, and deploy the highest levels of encryption technology and security procedures available.
A final advantage of cloud-based archiving is its ability to support changing demands and address various levels of service. That makes it equally available and affordable for imaging centers and mid-sized hospitals as well as large health care systems. All health care providers can appreciate services that include ongoing technology refreshment and easily accommodate a growth or decrease in imaging volumes.
Unprecedented data growth, government regulations and cost and investment constraints could be called the perfect storm. The irony is that “cloud” services may help CIOs survive, and even thrive, during these difficult times.
About the author: Bruce Leidal, Carestream’s CIO, streamlined business processes through the consolidation of over 300 core applications and led the successful implementation of more than 60 major projects. He previously served as CIO of Hayes Lemmerz, International (HLI), a $2.4 billion global automotive supplier, and held executive positions at General Motors, Federal-Mogul Corporation and several other companies.