80K Hits . . .and some interesting software

Image courtesy of: http://www.predig.com

Visit 80,000 was from a Sprint/United Information Service customer in Kansas City, Missouri, who found me via Google. They were trying to find out "who's going to buy GE business". . . I guess that remains to be seen, eh?

In the meantime, I just read about an interesting piece of software from BridgeHead Software. The product is called PACStore, and it supposedly

. . . helps healthcare organizations reduce the accelerating storage hardware and management burden imposed by the long term retention and protection of PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications Systems) medical image data.

The function that grabs my eye has to do with the old problem of uniting disparate PACS:

PACStore effectively unifies PACS data by enabling clinicians to search across stored medical images from different proprietary PACS systems. It does this through a search facility based on the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard used by most PACS vendors.

PACStore is storage agnostic, providing unlimited flexibility for selecting and deploying different types of storage media throughout the evolution of your data lifecycle management strategy. Storage costs are reduced as PACStore automatically moves data onto the appropriate storage media based on how available it needs to be. The most current, active PACS image data stays on the most highly available primary storage, while static data, which is viewed less frequently, is moved to alternative, lower cost media in line with compliance and protection requirements.

Sounds pretty good. I would remind the folks at BridgeHead that radiologists like to search too, not just clinicians. In fact, I think our needs are more important! And, they are a little too IT centric in their approach, or at least in their advertising:

The PACStore Solution

Traditionally, PACS vendors have provided internal standalone backup and offline archiving capabilities to address PACS data only. This created stovepipes within the organization, resulting in redundant technology assets outside the control of IT.

With a single complex study soon expected to consume upwards of 1TB of disk space, you can no longer afford redundant systems for medical image management.

PACStore from BridgeHead allows you to leverage your existing IT infrastructure, putting IT back in control of all your data.

Hey, wait a minute! I don't want IT in control of my data! But I get where they are coming from. This seems to be more of an internal fix than something to truly bring several external PACS together, but the idea could perhaps be redirected to that end.

Did they say 1TB per exam?