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Medical imaging advances mean storage problems

As more doctors use imaging technology to diagnose and treat patients, hospitals have to deal with new management, security, and access challenges.

In the past, radiology and cardiology departments were the primary users of medical imaging systems and picture archiving such as CT scans, MRI, cardiac catheterizations and echocardiograms were stored manually.

About five to seven years ago, the average 300 to 500 bed hospital needed about 1 to 2 terabytes of storage for its medical imaging, Now, it needs 50 to 100 terabytes.

Annual storage requirements for many providers are increasing at a rate of 20% to 100% per anum. This is due to better imaging a CT scan that in the past had 8 slices, or images, can now have 256 or more slice

Ballooning storage requirements has resulted in a number of challenges, the costs for staff to track and manage images, management software, disaster recovery and back-up systems, and the energy to power these systems.

Digital image storage space isn't easily reused. Retention rules for medical images vary, but generally, providers are required to keep images for at least seven years. When it comes to oncology centers, many hold on to these images for the life of the patient and beyond. Because cancer doctors as well as researchers are using the images to track how patients' tumors respond to various treatments.

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