VMWorld: Impact of Cloud-Based Medical Data Exchange Discussion

VMworld US 2012
Florent Saint-Clair, DR Systems Vice-President of Business Development and General Manager of eMix, will be presenting at the VMWorld 2012 conference. He is one of the panelists for today’s session titled “Industry Leaders Share the Impact of Their Cloud Deployments”.

Saint-Clair is discussing innovative uses that customers have found for eMix, including expedited care of trauma patients.

“Many of our customers now receive images for trauma patients directly into their hospital information system, well ahead of a patient’s arrival,” said Saint-Clair. “This improves patient safety because the hospital is ready for the patient when he or she arrives, rather than waiting for a CD sent in the ambulance. Because clinicians can already have a care plan in place when the patient is admitted, they often bypass the emergency room and send the patient straight to the operating room. We’ve seen how this also saves hospitals substantial costs — $14,000-$18,000 per patient.”

Others topics being discussed by Saint-Clair include:

  • Why to use a cloud-based service instead of acquiring new hardware or software;
  • The multi-layer security features of eMix, coupled with the capabilities of eMix’s virtualization operating system partner VMware and infrastructure partner iLand provide robust HIPAA compliance.
  • Future developments in cloud-based medical information exchange.

Saint-Clair’s session will be held Monday, Aug. 27, from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. VMWorld 2012 is being held Aug. 26-30 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

eMix was also discussed at the recent Health IT Summit of the Institute for Health Technology Transformation (iHT2). Peter Ghavami, Director of Informatics at Harborview Medical Center/University of Washington Health System, described how eMix has helped Harborview maximize the speed and quality of emergency care in its vast service area.

Harborview is the only Level 1 Trauma/Burn center serving the states of Washington, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, a region that encompasses one-fourth of the nation’s landmass. When patients are transferred to Harborview, their patient information must arrive quickly and reliably to expedite treatment planning.

For Harborview, eMix has also:

  • Enabled specialists in multiple locations to view images simultaneously for consultation
  • Made imaging file transfers so fast and dependable that reimaging of the patient can be avoided, which saves time and prevents exposing the patient to excess radiation.

Ghavami presented as a panelist for the session “Adopting the Cloud: Delivering Care Anytime, Anywhere.” The iHT2 conference was held Aug. 22-23 in Seattle.

More than 450 diverse facilities have now adopted eMix, including academic health systems, rural and community hospitals, radiology practices, cardiology practices, and imaging centers.