We've talked here before about the advantage that cloud-based systems for sharing medical information have over traditional methods such as burning CDs. One more is becoming increasingly apparent: No barriers of time or distance.
A service like eMix instantly creates a pipeline for medical image sharing between any two broadband-connected computers anywhere in the world. The file-sharing can be accomplished in just minutes, whether the two computers are across town from each other or on different sides of the planet.
eMix has demonstrated the global reach of cloud computing over and over in the past year. Here are some recent examples:
- In rural England, the family of a young boy with a rare carcinoma located a treatment team in the U.S. whose published paper, which they found online, suggested the team might be able to help the child.
The physicians needed to review the boy's MRI, and that posed a challenge. The family had mailed CDs of their son's imaging studies to specialists several times in the past, often with bad results. Sometimes the CDs got lost in transit. When they did arrive, the several days it took was still frustrating – and dangerous – because the tumor was growing at a furious rate.
When they learned about eMix, through another online search, the family contacted the company. That led to a dramatic intercession by eMix general manager Florent Saint-Clair that enabled the family to get the MRI to the U.S. team minutes after uploading it.
- eMix user facility Seattle Children's Hospital tells this story of another eMix-mediated file-swap between the U.S. and UK:
“We wanted to share this good news story with you and also take the opportunity to thank you. Once again you found time to help us provide vital imaging to a care provider and this time it truly was around the globe.
“The organization, Scoliosis SOS located in Suffolk, was in desperate need of imaging that we had of their patient for an upcoming prosthetic fitting appointment. Our ability to provide imaging to an untrained user on another continent speaks to the ease of use and portability of your product. Thanks again.”
- Because eMix has established a successful track record at the University of California San Diego, a radiologist there is now able to provide second opinion services for a physician in the Ukraine, with eMix used to transmit the radiology files.
- Health Canada, the government single-payer health system, recently OK'd the marketing of eMix in its country.
Such global exchanges are hardly news with ordinary commerce. But medical facilities have struggled even to move files within the same city because of proprietary information systems that are technological islands. With the cloud, however, islands are easily hopped, even if there's an ocean or more between them.
