From the May 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
While zero-client solutions are great for access to/distribution of images to a wide variety of stakeholders in the care cycle, there are current limitations in technology (dictation integration, multi-monitor support, etc.) that prevent these solutions from becoming true radiology reading workstations.
Currently, the “thick, thin, zero” client continuum includes tradeoffs of functionality, features, network bandwidth and IT support. With advances in zero-client technology and the advent of new standards like HTML5, we anticipate that increasing capabilities will be available in a zero-client environment. Radiology reading workstations as we know them today will become a thing of the past. They will continue to become thinner and may even become zero-client one day.
Beyond image viewing to true interoperability
Facilitating the exchange of information from ANY content creators to ANY content consumer extends beyond Web-based, zero-client viewing. Accessing an image for display and accessing an image for interoperability have different requirements. Not all modalities and PACS systems create images in a DICOM format the same way.
The newest interoperability solutions neutralize vendor-specific DICOM information so that an image can be exchanged from one PACS to another and then viewed. Additionally, vendor-neutral archiving and storage solutions are advancing to bring together previously siloed data sets.
The newest solutions, such as Merge iConnect, offer an integrated, modular, standards-based approach to image storage, exchange and viewing. With this approach, organizations can readily leverage existing technology investments and build incrementally toward a comprehensive solution that enables any image, anytime, anywhere.
The future of true image interoperability is upon us, where diagnostic imaging data is seamlessly shared -- no matter where the data originated, how it was generated, the processes that invoked it, or the people using it.
Atul Agarwal is the Vice President, R&D for Health IT solutions at Merge Healthcare. Since joining Merge in 2004, Mr. Agarwal has held a variety of roles in operations management, account management, product management and R&D. He has 15 years of experience in delivering IT services and product development and holds a B.E. degree from Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA from Richard Ivey School of Business.
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