CHICAGO - As healthcare institutions increasingly make the move to the digital domain, they face the challenge of implementing and integrating a wide variety of disparate information systems, while also ensuring appropriate security and disaster-recovery plans.
Enter data storage giant EMC, which is formally launching its Healthcare Solutions Group this week at the RSNA meeting. The new division will seek to provide hospitals with the network and storage infrastructure necessary to support a rich media environment that encompasses a wide variety of healthcare information, including medical images, streaming video, and audio, according to William Knight, director of HSG.
"We see ourselves as providing the foundation for the new development of digital technology as it moves outside of hospital IS departments," Knight said.
For healthcare institutions, the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) will spark the accelerated adoption of rich media, Knight said.
With these kinds of market dynamics, EMC sees a business opportunity. In addition to providing its Symmetrix enterprise storage systems, CLARiiON mid-range storage systems and enterprise storage software, and Celerra media file server, EMC will be able to assist hospitals with security and disaster-recovery services, Knight said.
"What we do very well is store and mirror data, or backup for disaster recovery," Knight said. "We’re not new to this. Over 60% of all of the digital information in the world is maintained on EMC technology."
For example, if a disk drive is having difficulty, EMC’s technology immediately mirrors that drive’s data to another drive and then shuts the bad drive down. A message is then sent to EMC’s service center, which automatically dispatches a service representative, Knight said.
In addition, EMC can help customers with systems integration tasks, allowing for storage of all information -- RIS, HIS, PACS, or otherwise -- in one location. To accomplish this feat, EMC can call on the expertise of its integration lab in Hopkinton, MA, where approximately a billion dollars worth of computer hardware and software is tested for integration, Knight said.
While this year’s RSNA announcement is EMC’s formal introduction to the radiology community, the vendor has been busy this year securing relationships with prominent PACS and healthcare informatics firms. EMC will primarily be providing its services through channel partners, Knight said.
In its first such deal, EMC signed on mid-year to provide the storage and necessary infrastructure to GE Medical Systems for use in that firm’s new application service provider (ASP) digital image management model. In addition, EMC also announced this month an agreement to provide Philips Medical Systems with a range of storage services. EMC is also working with several other informatics and PACS vendors, and plans to announce formal relationships in the near future, Knight said.
In addition, EMC’s financial arm has taken an equity position in digital image management companies Amicas and Stentor in recent months, Knight said. The EMC financial wing, which is charged with investing in companies that may offer strong future storage opportunities, views the medical ASP storage model as a significant investment opportunity and chose to invest in those firms, he said. Further investments by that group may also be made, Knight said.
By Erik L. Ridley
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
November 26, 2000
Related Reading
Philips to sell EMC storage, November 20, 2000
Stentor garners $20 million in financing, October 19, 2000
GE readies launch of PACS application service provider program, July 19, 2000
GE forms alliance with EMC, June 26, 2000
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