LifeIMAGE connects patients and images using cloud computing

Walk into the lifeIMAGE booth on the RSNA 2010 exhibit floor and you will see how hundreds of thousands of patients will take control of their medical images and records over the next two years. 

The Boston company is part of an initiative, run by the RSNA with federal funds, to promote the sharing of medical images and other records with patients. The goal is to give patients control over their imaging histories in much the same way as they use the Internet to bank and shop.

As many as 300,000 patients are expected to take part in the exchange over the course of the two-year contract from the NIH National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. Through its cloud technology and vendor-neutral platform, lifeIMAGE will serve as the clearinghouse to receive images and reports from hospitals and imaging centers, then deliver the images and related data to standards-compliant personal health record (PHR) platforms.

Mount Sinai Medical Center, University of California at San Francisco, University of Maryland, University of Chicago, and the Mayo Clinic are the participating centers. Patient information from these centers will flow through the lifeIMAGE network to participating PHRs.

This week, in the company’s booth on the RSNA exhibit floor, lifeIMAGE is demonstrating the underlying technology and process. Visitors to the booth (Hall B, North Building, Booth #9039) can register for a simulated imaging exam, approve image sharing through lifeIMAGE, sign in to a PHR to view their images and reports, and learn how to work within the PHR platform. This can also be done at the IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) Image Sharing Demonstration (Hall A, South Building, Booth #2852).

In actual practice, real patient information will be stored on a secured private and HIPAA-compliant cloud using storage provided by EMC, an information storage firm, and information management infrastructure technology. The project is based on the IHE XDS and XDS-I standard profiles, which are intended to create a common and standards-based approach to exchanging medical information among various stakeholders.