If your practice already has an onsite storage system for your medical images, you might be considering deploying a cloud picture archiving and communication system (PACS) or hybrid (a mix of cloud and onsite storage) to increase the accessibility of your studies.
If you run a private veterinary practice that uses medical imaging technology, you may be confused by a myriad of PACS offerings, each claiming advantages over the other. Whether you are finally giving up developing film or moving from an integrated Practice Management System (PMS), understanding how to parse the various buzz words, platforms and offerings to determine what is right for you, is a daunting task.
The benefits of electronic medical records have been documented extensively. Having a complete set of patient information at the point of diagnosis or treatment eliminates the need to re-test, reduces treatment errors and streamlines health care processes. This complete record includes medical images, such as x-rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scans, ultrasounds and other diagnostic studies which are essential to helping physicians build a complete picture of the state of a patient's health.
First off, burning CDs and DVDs is not an optimal way to go about handling medical imaging studies for a variety of reasons, ranging from security concerns to overall efficiency. That said, sometimes circumstances dictate that CDs or DVDs are needed and your picture archive and communications system (PACS) should be able to accommodate.
The ability to manage medical imaging studies effectively and efficiently is critical to the success of any practice. Physicians rely on the accuracy of studies, as well as the information that accompanies them, to provide the right diagnoses and treatments to their patients. However, if you find that your clinical staff has challenges securely managing image studies and associated protected health information (PHI), your clinic could find itself addressing regulatory issues, an area of liability you want to avoid as much as possible.
For these reasons it's imperative to choose a cloud PACS vendor that makes it easy for you to manage your medical imaging studies once they have been uploaded into the cloud.
