How to share medical imaging along a patient's care pathway

Thanks to the progress medicine has made in recent years, healthcare facilities can now transfer a patient's medical images between them. The technology is a way of reducing how long it takes to obtain information, and it speeds up the care patients receive. NetExplorer explains here how medical imaging is shared between those involved in a patient's care.

Why does sharing medical imaging matter?

Sharing medical imaging grew out of the wish to move towards faster care for patients in healthcare facilities. The technology is useful in a number of situations.

Referring a patient to a specialist

Once the preliminary medical images have been obtained, it falls to the general practitioner to refer the patient to a specialist for more targeted care. Sharing medical imaging remotely lets the specialist view that information without having to travel to obtain it.

Transferring primary care

A patient sometimes moves from one place to another before their course of treatment has ended. Where distance requires it, they have to change care provider in order to continue their follow-up. Thanks to shared imaging examinations, transferring the files to their new healthcare facility is straightforward, and the patient benefits from faster follow-up care.

Patients' ownership of their records

Sharing medical imaging also puts each patient in possession of their own previous imaging examinations. That works in the healthcare facility's favour too, because it helps reduce the burden of storage and backup.

Copying to CD or DVD: an awkward method

Copying to CD or DVD is the oldest way of sharing medical imaging examinations. It involves copying the images from the PACS server (Picture Archiving and Communications System) onto compact or digital versatile discs. Those are then handed to the patient along with their medical record, and can be passed directly to the healthcare facility that needs to consult them.

Relatively effective as it is, this way of sharing medical imaging examinations nonetheless has considerable shortcomings. First, it means buying a CD or DVD for each patient's data, and in some cases paying to have it delivered to their home. The risk of losing the disc is not negligible either, since it is a physical object. All of these shortcomings led to the emergence of a cloud-based method, which turns out to be far more effective.

What to look for in a cloud solution for sharing medical imaging

Thanks to digitisation in healthcare, imaging examinations can now be managed through the cloud, whatever their size. There are several online solutions for sharing medical imaging in France today. Before choosing one, you absolutely have to make sure that the health data hosting meets the conditions required for your data to be managed properly.

Respect for confidentiality

An effective data sharing solution has, above all, features that guarantee information stays absolutely confidential. That criterion, attested by the ISO 27001 standard, is essential, particularly where medical data is concerned: most of these files can hold information covered by medical confidentiality.

Meeting quality standards

This criterion, supported by the ISO 20000 standard, attests to the quality of the services a solution for sharing personal medical data offers. It guarantees that the solution keeps improving its features and its technology. Meeting it matters if your data is to stay protected against any possible cyberattack.

Secure sharing through the cloud with NetExplorer

NetExplorer has built two solutions: Share and Workspace. They let you store medical images on a local network and also view them from anywhere. That changes a great deal in how medical imaging is shared, whether between departments in the same healthcare facility or with the patient. Choosing our solution brings you a number of advantages.

HDS certification

Health Data Hosting certification (HDS) attests that a data centre meets the security and confidentiality standards required when handling the information you entrust to it. The NetExplorer solutions are HDS certified. They guarantee absolute protection for storing and sharing all of your medical imaging examinations. What is more, because we host in France, compliance with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is assured. The GDPR is recognised worldwide as a benchmark for security.

Better availability

Because the images are stored in the cloud, a doctor no longer has to travel to consult them. They can reach them from their phone or their computer, at any moment and as often as they like. Several doctors can also view the files at the same time, so a diagnosis can be reached and care given more quickly.

Better security

Sharing medical imaging through the cloud is more secure than copying files onto a CD, which can be lost or stolen. It happens through servers whose level of security matches that of online banking. With NetExplorer, your patients' imaging files are reachable only by those entitled to see them, so their information is safe from improper use. All you have to do is make sure sign-in credentials stay strictly confidential.

Lower costs

Unlike sharing by CD, sharing medical imaging through the cloud needs no physical media. Adopting the medical imaging sharing solution NetExplorer offers therefore lets your healthcare facility save on the budget set aside for its imaging department. Do call on our services to share your medical imaging examinations.