Denver, CO (PRWEB) November 26, 2012
The Colorado Telehealth Network (CTN) developed a program that will enable hospitals, imaging centers, clinics and other health care providers in Colorado to safely store and share medical images through a private cloud hosted and managed by GNAX Health on CTN. CTN and GNAX Health are working with the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO) and Quality Health Network (QHN)the two Colorado Health Information Exchangesto image-enable their physician portals so that images and diagnostic reports will be available through the HIEs. GNAX Health will also allow CTN to offer disaster recovery and business continuity solutions. In addition, electronic medical records (EMRs) can be integrated with the infrastructure to provide physicians a single interface for viewing all medical images, which is a requirement for Stage 2 Meaningful Use.
Nine CHA member hospitals worked with CTN over the past eight months to develop the imaging program with input from hospitals across Colorado. After a thorough RFI process and evaluation of five solutions, CTN selected a solution provided by GNAX Health through a strategic alliance with Acuo Technologies and Client Outlook. The unique requirements of the CTN program required a specific set of capabilities that is best addressed through this strategic alliance. Several use casessuch as the ability to search, retrieve and exchange medical image studies federated across CTN and view images quickly from the cloudled to this best-of-breed approach.
This pioneering agreement between CTN, GNAX, Acuo Technologies and Client Outlook further solidifies our network as a national leader in health information technology and connectivity, comments Ed Bostick, CTN Executive Director. We are confident this new image-storing service has the functionality and advantages our clients deserve, and promises to significantly enhance patient care coordination and quality across Colorado.
The solution combines Acuo’s Universal Clinical Platform (UCP) with Client Outlook’s eUnity clinical image visualization, sharing and collaboration toolset, hosted within GNAX’s health care-focused cloud infrastructure and tier-4 data centersall supported by a cohesive customer support program. This collective solution provides necessary components critical to building a statewide vendor neutral archive and, subsequently, a highly secure disaster recovery and business continuity solution for medical imaging without the infrastructure and costs associated with a traditional model.
GNAX Health is also providing a web-based image exchange service for CTN, called SDEX (Secure DICOM Exchange) that is integrated into the foundation of Acuo’s UCP and utilizes the Client Outlook viewer. It meets the challenge of complicated workflows by integrating with the provider’s employee and patient identification systems to securely access and simplify patient searches. Studies can be retrieved from any of the connected PACS, local edge devices or from the cloud archive, making the location of the image transparent to the end user in addition to reducing the total amount of storage required (because images do not have to be copied in all locations to be accessible).
This is a great example of a successful public-private partnership. This collaboration led to a unique strategic alliance that produces a solution unlike any others in the market, said Jeff Hinkle, chief executive officer for GNAX Health. “This offering tightly integrates world-class clinical content viewing, abstraction and life-cycle management applications, data migration, cloud-computing and customer support services into a single bundle, greatly simplifying the process of administering enterprise medical image access, exchange and management while reducing IT costs.”
“This consortium brings an innovative solution based on IHE standards to CTN,” noted Jeff Timbrook, chief executive officer for Acuo Technologies. “We’ve worked closely with GNAX and Client Outlook to develop an implementation approach that will save CTN significant time and effort.
The benefits of the program to Colorado health care providers and patients are numerous. Patients of participating providers should no longer be required to transport their own imaging studies via CD or film. Consequently, such patients should no longer undergo duplicate studies, reducing unnecessary radiation exposure.
CTN leverages the reciprocal collaborative nature of the solution to make it affordable for all providers in Colorado. The services are available to all CTN members through flexible deployment models that fit each providers needs. The program is financially sustained through a subscription model based on the number of studies ingested and the amount of cloud storage required. Because the program is scaled across the entire state of Colorado, it provides cost savings for both large and small providers. The small hospitals receive an enterprise vendor-neutral archive and exchange solution at a fraction of the cost while gaining access to specialists at larger institutions for their patients. Large providers also benefit from the collaboration with critical access facilities because they can service patients they may not otherwise be able to as easily.
Two hospitals are expected to begin implementation this year, with several additional hospitals slated for 2013.
CTN, along with GNAX Health, Acuo Technologies and Client Outlook will summarize the journey to this strategic alliance-based solution during a presentation at RSNA 2012 in Chicago. RSNA attendees can see the presentation on Monday, November 26th at 10:30 a.m. in the South Hall Exhibitor Showcase Theatre, booth 4064. Learn more about the session here: http://go.gnaxhealth.com/RSNA2012-CTN-session.html. RSNA attendees may also schedule an appointment to speak with GNAX Health and CTN executives to learn more about the Colorado program here: http://go.gnaxhealth.com/RSNA-CTN-GNAX_appointment.html.
About the Colorado Telehealth Network
The Colorado Telehealth Network (CTN) is a statewide broadband network formed in 2008 as a result of two Federal Communications Commission (FCC) grant awards to the Colorado Hospital Association and the Colorado Behavioral Health Council. In partnership with the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization and the Quality Health Network, CTN works to improve patient care and safety by providing the core network infrastructure that enables rural health care organizations to increase their use of health information technology; and encourages affiliated health care organizations to collaborate and integrate in ways not possible without a high-capacity, connected network. In January 2012, CTN met its goal of connecting more than 200 hospitals, clinics and behavioral health care centers statewide. For more information, visit http://www.cotelehealth.com.
About GNAX Health
GNAX Health is a leading health care technology infrastructure and application delivery service provider offering hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, labs and many other health care organizations mission-critical datacenter colocation, managed application delivery, backup & disaster recovery, medical image vendor neutral archive (VNA) and enterprise level cloud computing services. GNAX’s 70,000 square-foot mission-critical datacenter in Atlanta is SSAE 16 Type II compliant with Tier-4 power and serves as its home base with an additional strategic facility located in Dallas, Texas. Learn more by visiting RSNA booth 439 or go to http://www.gnaxhealth.com.
About Acuo Technologies
Acuo Technologies, with headquarters in Minneapolis, MN, was founded in 2000 with the objective of developing the first enterprise-wide collaborative Universal Clinical Platform (UCP) solution for medical image content, both DICOM and Non-DICOM. Today, Acuo supports implementations of UCP around the world, including locatio
Colorado Telehealth Network Signs Contract with GNAX Health to Provide Statewide Medical Image Archive and Exchange
