Whitney Palmer

Follow-Up: How Secure Is Cloud-based Image Sharing?

Published on the Feb. 1, 2012, DiagnosticImaging.com website

By Whitney L.J. Howell

Interest in cloud image sharing has swelled in recent months. The topic has appeared on national conference agendas, and a growing number of vendors now offer clients the ability to transfer images anywhere worldwide. But the rising popularity of sending images via the Internet doesn’t mean everyone in the radiology industry is comfortable with the idea.

In an informal, nonscientific January Diagnostic Imaging poll, 70 percent of respondents reported they are concerned about the security of cloud image sharing. According to many vendors, this type of image sharing prompts two main worries: Will images viewed through the cloud be of high enough quality to render a diagnosis, and will a cloud sharing system protect the large number of patient images effectively?

Many industry leaders and vendors said existing privacy protocols are more than enough to keep patient images safe.

But not every cloud image sharing vendor creates an entirely new privacy and safety protocol. For example, eHealth Global Technologies relies on measures that exist within health information exchanges (HIEs) to keep the images in its eHealth Connect® Diagnostic Image Exchange safe.

“Health information exchanges already have security and consent controls set up,” said Ken Rosenfeld, eHealth Global’s CEO. “Rather than asking clients to spend the time and money to put new protocols in place and reinvent security measures, we work within the framework they already have.”

To read the remainder of the article: http://www.diagnosticimaging.com/informatics-pacs/content/article/113619/2024991

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