RSNA's Image Share initiative was designed as a demonstration project to show that patient-directed image transfer could be accomplished with high patient and clinician satisfaction, according to Siegel. Patients are asked to choose one of the approved personal health record (PHR) vendors participating in the project, and then can access their images and reports and also share them with a healthcare practitioner.
"This solution works well but raises the question of long-term storage of patient images; the current funding is limited and patients will have to pay the PHR providers within the next several months," Siegel told AuntMinnie.com.
Siegel and co-author Mohamed Shoura, PhD, of RIS/PACS vendor Paxeramed sought to investigate whether patients could instead transfer their images and reports directly to their own accounts at cloud service providers such as Box, Dropbox, or Google Drive.
"Images can be directly visualized from those ubiquitous cloud systems," Siegel said. "This provides a more cost-effective and potentially even more private means to enable patients to have access to and control of their own imaging studies and reports without asking patients to sign up for a new service."
Get all the details in this Wednesday presentation.
