Leading Views

PACS Cloud Computing

Q & A with Alan Schweitzer,
CTO Radiology Consulting Group

Cloud computing, is it just the latest tech buzzword du jour? Or is it here to stay? Whatever it is, it continues to be a hot topic at conferences, and some of the computing industry’s biggest players are moving into it, but what exactly is it? And what does it offer the PACS community if anything? To find out, we talked with Alan Schweitzer, Chief Technology Officer for the Radiology Consulting Group, and the Imaging Business Development Group at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He is an expert in PACS and voice recognition strategic planning, networking and radiology information systems.

Q. What is cloud computing as it pertains to PACS?

A. In my mind it is having the IT infrastructure (hardware and software) at a data center that is not physically co-located where the primary users are. It is typically provided by a third party, so the users don’t own the technology, they rent it. 

PACS News Roundup

PACSGEAR ramps up for PACS 2.0

Solutions evolve to connect medical images from departments outside radiology

PLEASANTON, Calif., Sep 28, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- PACSGEAR, the leading provider of imaging connectivity for electronic health records, today announced an expanded strategy to combine medical images from all departments with electronic health records. The "PACS 2.0" initiative is the evolution of medical image connectivity to include integration with the electronic health record. In the past year, PACSGEAR has successfully integrated over 500,000 medical studies outside of radiology, and can now deliver integrated solutions that capture, view and share medical images and results across the enterprise. (More)


RSNA's Image Share project hopes to repeat DICOM success

Sept. 15, 2011 -- In the late 1990s, radiology societies helped encourage vendor adoption of the DICOM 3.0 standard, a milestone that ultimately sparked a revolution in digital image management. Now, RSNA hopes its Image Share project will do the same for the nascent field of image sharing. (More)

DICOM Grid to FASTech 50 List of Most Innovative Technology Start-Ups

PHOENIX, AZ, Sep 15, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) – DICOM Grid, provider of a cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for medical imaging applications, today announced it has been named to VentureWire's FASTech 50 list of the most innovative technology start-ups. DICOM Grid was selected from a pool of hundreds of venture-backed companies by the editors of Dow Jones VentureWire and a board of leading venture capitalists. (More)

Developing Integration: a Real Opportunity for Vendors in the European CIS Market

LONDON, Sept. 14 2011 – Healthcare facilities in Europe are currently working to create a unified digital patient record. In tandem, medical imaging vendors are developing and offering cardiology information systems (CIS) with advanced functionalities and easy integration capabilities with enterprise-wide information systems. As a result of such trends, image management-based information systems are set to witness revenue growth. (More)


Cloud-based service streamlines quicker image sharing for hospital

NEW YORK, Sept. 1, 2011 — Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y., has begun using a cloud-based service to share medical images among multiple physicians without entering them into the healthcare system's picture archiving and communication system (PACS), according to an article in InformationWeek. (More)