By John Memarian and Hugh Lyshkow

Contemporary healthcare in the United States is quite disjointed, particularly regarding the retrieval of patient data that extends beyond Protected Health Information (PHI) and basic demographics. This includes essential diagnostic records, both current and historical, from clinical groups, which are crucial for a comprehensive longitudinal care strategy that encompasses various healthcare institutions.

Over last decade, there has been a considerable investment (time, finances, resources) in unifying patient Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Nevertheless, these systems inherently omit vital clinical information produced by the various devices, modalities, and systems utilized by medical professionals for patient diagnosis and treatment. This type of information is often categorized under clinical informatics. Yet, this term fails to encompass additional data with substantial file sizes that carry richer content.
Clinical imaging data, for instance, offers a vast array of diagnostic and informational information that far surpasses other data types created within the EMR framework. Currently, a large portion of global medical imaging data remains isolated within individual healthcare provider’s facilities, and this fragmentation extends across various provider locations and even throughout entire Integrated Delivery Networks (IDN), leading to considerable discontinuities in patient health records.

Healthcare is not a series of isolated events but a continuous journey for patients. Improved access to comprehensive data allows clinicians to understand the full scope of a patient's medical history, which is crucial to enhance decision-making and patient outcomes.

Despite the pivotal importance of medical imaging in diagnosis, treatment planning and ongoing patient management, significant obstacles remain in accessing and leveraging this data effectively. The prevailing misconception within healthcare IT systems and among service providers is that medical imaging serves merely as a single-use resource. This view is a stark contrast to the reality that imaging data, including the visual records of a patient’s condition, are invaluable for providing foundational and historical context to inform current medical assessments. This misapprehension has led to a storage approach, that favors the retention of images and associated data within closed clinical system.

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