Nuance, a national communication company, has now enabled the ability for health providers to share over 3 billion health images using cloud technology. This new technology will allow healthcare providers, such as doctors, to send along x-rays and other medical information to various places even if the places are not networked together.
In the past, it has often been difficult to get health care institutions to share diagnostic images with each other because of concerns over privacy and network security. Consequently, patients have experienced delayed or inconsistent treatment of their ailments. The lack of communication has also unnecessarily padded already expensive medical bills — if a patient’s provider can’t access their old MRI scan, then they have to conduct a new one.
“Physicians love that they don’t have to deal with a CD anymore,” said Josh Pavlovec, who works as a system administrator at Children’s of Alabama. “The Network takes their mind off of whether or not they can access an image — allowing them to focus on treating patients.”
There are a few reasons besides accessibility that cloud is preferred by many companies in the U.S., both large and small. One advantage is that data is accessible from anywhere, not just from within a closed network — this can help increase system flexibility and accessibility. Another advantage is that, unlike traditional POC systems, cloud systems only charge monthly fees — not licensing or maintenance fees.
Nuance is currently used by over 2,000 organizations across the country. Now that the Powershare cloud network is in effect, these organizations will be able to share detailed images between themselves in order to better facilitate quick and accurate patient care. Nuance is also offering a mobile app for image viewing; according to a recent survey, 70% of doctors use mobile devices in order to examine patient data.
While this might be the newest advance in medical technology thanks to cloud solutions, it’s not the only one. Telemedicine has been called “the new face of healthcare innovation” by Forbes, and it’s helping to better connect patients with specialists that might be located hundreds of miles away, and to close the gap when it comes to the long waits patients sometimes have before they can access initial appointments. This, too, is possible through using cloud technology to safely transfer data from Point A to Point B.