Cloud Medical and Medical Storage

What is Cloud Medical?

In cloud-based medical imaging systems, medical records storage and image processing functions are provided by cloud-based servers. This type of configuration of medical IT systems is a relatively recent development as PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) and related systems have up until now been supported by local servers confined to the premises of radiology clinics and other medical facilities using them.

Cloud computing in healthcare has provided a new solution for the medical storage systems of an increasing number of radiology centers struggling with storage capacities of their local PACS servers. Transferring to the cloud has mitigated these concerns while simultaneously offering less expensive hardware and software support and eliminating system vulnerabilities related to on-premises servers. This in turn can lower the expenses of facilities using medical imaging significantly as the medical records storage and its preservation are no longer the responsibility of the hospital, clinic, or imaging center.

Features of Cloud Medical

Common features of healthcare clouds include:

Cloud storage

One of the main advantages of cloud computing in healthcare is in its ability to provide the much needed medical records storage space to archive the DICOM files obtained from medical imaging.

Broad network access

The uploaded data is accessible to users from various devices (e.g., workstations, tablets, PCs, and smartphones) and from a wide range of locations within the network, whether that be the internet or a local area network (LAN) in the case of private healthcare clouds. The data is secured and patient privacy protected through a HIPAA-compliant, SSL-encrypted network connection.

Resource pooling

Resources such as medical storage, processing, network bandwidth, and memory are pooled by the provider to multiple users from a central location according to each user’s requirement.

On-demand self-service

Administrative users are able to access the service and perform system modifications without having to go through the cloud service provider.

Rapid elasticity

The ability of the system to automatically adapt resources according to computing demands. Any changes in demand on the user’s side are ready to be handled by the provider without making any alterations to the software or hardware.

Versatility

Healthcare clouds can be used to aid clinical diagnosis, teaching, consulting, reviewing, and testing, as well as for communicating with patients.

Measured service

The services are charged by the healthcare cloud service provider in accordance with the amount of resources used.

Benefits of Cloud Medical

Some of the advantages of cloud computing in healthcare over local PACS systems include:

Higher storage capacity

While local PACS systems may be able to cater to existing requirements of medical records storage, cloud-based PACS is definitely the long-term archiving solution. Medical storage requirements for medical imaging data are always increasing as the images obtained from more advanced types of device have extremely large file sizes.

Lower costs

Servers based in healthcare clouds eliminate the need for on-premises server hardware along with the costs involved in its maintenance.

Easier, faster, and more reliable sharing of information

The ability to share medical imaging data and related documents in the cloud securely, protecting patients’ rights and privacy without having to store data on CDs and send them out to different locations.

Lower risk of losing data

With local PACS, all of your patient information is vulnerable to any hardware damage. One unfortunate event can result in complete loss of stored data. Cloud-based medical storage is completely immune to anything happening to the on-premises PACS hardware. Regardless of the physical damage, the data remains safely stored in the cloud and accessible from any device.

Uniform patient IDs

It results from being able to store all patient data in one location.

More physical space

The space required for the housing and maintenance of local servers can be used as additional room for patients.

Our Cloud & Storage Services

PostDICOM is an online service enabling the installation of a PACS system whose medical records storage and functions are provided by a healthcare cloud-based PACS server, preserving and expanding on the standard PACS functions while providing a storage space independent from location-bound, on-premises servers.

DICOM is the universal transmission protocol and file format of PACS systems. When uploading to PostDICOM, all images obtained from medical imaging modalities (such as ultrasound, MRI, CT, and radiography) and related documents (in PDF, JPG, BMP, and AVI formats) are converted into the DICOM format and stored in your archive where they can stay indefinitely for as long as the user account is active.

PostDICOM can be used by doctors, hospitals, hospital groups, and patients as a convenient and easily accessible means of accelerating communication and consultation between these parties and consequently enhancing the diagnostic process and improving patient care.

Our HTML5 zero-footprint lossless DICOM viewer enables viewing files from any type of device (desktop PCs, smartphones, tablets) within a secure cloud environment where DICOM files can be shared between doctors, medical groups, and patients while the private information of patients remains protected.

Among its many benefits, PostDICOM also provides advanced functions such as image processing tools, data streaming algorithms, and diagnostic tools such as MPR, MIP, MINIP, AVGIP, and 3D rendering.

PostDICOM provides free trial for medical records storage. User accounts can always be upgraded to store up to 10TB of data by opting for a paid subscription.

Security is ensured as meticulous precautions are taken against any system vulnerabilities. Both communication between PostDICOM servers and the DICOM data itself are encrypted to enable secure data storage and retrieval. Any shared data can be additionally protected with passwords.