The new cloud hovering over the IT industry bodes pleasant and sunny business weather. Reason enough for the organisers of CeBIT 2011, the large international IT event held in Hanover this March, to make ‘cloud computing’ the keynote theme, dubbed ‘Work and Life with the Cloud’. EH reporter Walter F Schäfer questions what cloud computing is and what promise it might hold for healthcare…
With 1,600 customers and a 30-40% market share in Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland, IT and imaging enterprise Agfa and its hospital-wide IT solution Orbis are ahead of the game. Dr Volker Wetekam, Executive Vice President of the IT Division, Agfa Healthcare, speaks of a technological advantage of as much as two to three years in the key segments -- PACS, cardiology and regional health --…
These are exciting times for Carestream. The former film supplier is morphing into a genuine IT provider. Since its incorporation in 2007, the company has been investing many resources in the development of its portfolio with products that include systems for medical and dental imaging, IT solutions, molecular imaging and digital X-ray as well as digital products for non-destructive testing.
What connects these: dementia research; the development of a procedure for fast, cost efficient gene sequencing; protein research; modern IT infrastructures, and the determination of reimbursement structures for medical procedures? Answer: Two extremely small common denominators: Bits and bytes. This means data and, increasingly, mass data, which now forms the foundation of medicine. The question…
e-health is now very much on the political agenda, recognised as a key enabler for delivering better healthcare and choice for patients. In this article Dr Harald Deutsch, Vice President CSC Healthcare EMEA, explains why he believes we are entering an era of the “normalisation” of e-health and how the convergence of technology standards will be a key driver for success. He also explores how…
Given that European countries have very diverse healthcare systems with special types of hospitals and even special information systems, comparison of healthcare systems and hospital performances is difficult. Thus, the first HIMSS Europe Leadership IT Summit, which took place in Rome, has provided a platform from which to discuss quality patient care based on IT and particularly the…
Given the task of archiving today’s huge data files, not to mention additional services demanded of hospital IT staff, cloud computing could reduce many headaches. Via a healthcare IT supplier that offers cloud computing, a hospital would be able to use, over the Web, virtual hardware that provides higher levels of storage capacity and computing resources.
Initiated by Professor Peter Mildenberger and organised by European Hospital, the second PACS and more seminar, held during the DICOM meeting in Mainz, Germany, more than matched its name. Report: Meike Lerner
L’Assitance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, France, is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. In 2005, the group voted to implement a PACS in association with Carestream Health to connect its 47 hospitals and centralise their data. This meant creating a network to cover 36 CT scanners, 31 MRIs, seven PET-CTs and 37 SPECT systems, which were linked to 37 RIS and 30,000 computers - of course…
The equation is simple: Hospital IT data is growing exponentially, hospital funds are not. Facing enormous data volumes and less chance of increasing equipment or staff, IT managers inevitably suffer headaches. ‘Cloud is really IT being delivered as a service over the Internet,’ Mark Clark explained.
In June 2009, IBM introduced the industry’s first set of commercial cloud services. Based on two years of research and hundreds of client engagements, the IBM Smart Business ‘cloud’ portfolio aims to help clients turn complex business processes into simple services. How does IBM explain what cloud services are? Cloud Computing is a form of IT use where the end user can utilise…
Considering the huge tasks and issues involved, the connection of health services, digitised EPRs, and text messaging via mobile phones, all are progressing -- some slowly, others at a more rapid pace – as many speakers at the e-Health Insider Conference underlined.