Enabling Timely Access to Medical Images and Information for Better Patient Treatment

Abstract

Medical images have progressed from X-rays on film to digital capture. Sharing images to departments and hospitals remotely from the place of capture has, over the years, been via description only, through an image print-out or by ‘burning’ them onto a compact disk (CD) or digital versatile disc (DVD). More recently, Internet-linked point-to-point virtual private networks (VPN) mean that departments and hospitals that have access to such systems can request and send images via these links. Cloud-based systems have been replacing these in some institutions, with images held both locally and uploaded to a remote centre. An update to these systems is being trialled in Austria by Andreas Nuener and Christian Stark, based at the University Hospital, Innsbruck, who here discuss the development of such. Utilising a Siemens Healthineers (Erlanger, Germany) eHealth Solutions technology platform, they are planning the automatic registration (provision) of clinical images, such as from sonography, computed radiography, MRI, or CT, in Austria’s nationwide electronic health record (EHR) system, Elektronische Gesundheitsakte (ELGA). A small trial of this system demonstrated that any eligible healthcare professional who needs access to the images can do so instantly. Astrid Grams, Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria, illustrated the use of this system via the case scenario of a patient who has had an ischaemic stroke and is being treated at a remote hospital, with the treating physician querying whether or not they need to be transferred to the University Hospital, Innsbruck, for more specialist treatment.