Carestream and Hitachi create clinical data store
- 19 June 2007
Carestream Health and Hitachi Data Systems have announced they have collaborated to create a powerful data management solution that will help enable healthcare organisations to efficiently archive clinical information from multiple systems over extended periods of time.
The new solution, which is able to handle multiple data types including patient records and diagnostic images, will be commercially available from July, will combine Carestream Health’s Versatile Intelligent Patient Archive (VIParchive) and Hitachi’s Content Archive Platform.
The collaboration is designed to combine Carestream’s (previously Kodak Health) experience in healthcare IT with Hitachi’s data storage skills.
Hitachi’s EMEA healthcare strategic partner manager, Mark Clark, told E-Health Europe: “The collaboration between the two parties will create one central archive, allowing multiple feeds to be stored in this central repository, providing all data in one place, available immediately at the point of care.”
Carestream Health’s project manager, Joseph Maune, told EHE: “Many of our customers keep images which they legally have to keep for long periods of time. This long life cycle management can be better facilitated by combining the two data storage solutions and applying new rules which will help combine data into one single record, available from one central repository.”
The agreement between the two firms is a worldwide, with the solution being first made available to existing Carestreamand Hitachi Data Systems customers, mainly in Europe, including NHS Scotland and projects in France and Denmark, as well as in the US.
Maune added: “This project has already created great interest in the global health market and we anticipate that both old and new customers alike will want to implement the solution, so that from one single location, they can manage patient cases on a case by case basis.”
Carestream Health’s VIParchive is a software platform that can take clinical information from multiple healthcare sources and consolidate this information in an intelligent archive.
The Hitachi Content Archive Platform is an active archive solution that allows organisations to satisfy regulatory and corporate governance mandates and provides rapid access to archived data when needed.
Clark added: “Together these two applications will create a repository that will not only allow healthcare organisations to store data in just one location, but also be able to access it from any machine internally or externally, helping to provide a continuity of care.”
Maune told EHE: “As hospitals continue to build out storage, we want to be able to provide them with a solution that will enable them to go forward technologically, and allowing them to obtain essential patient data at the point of care. This really is the future of electronic health records.”
Both groups welcomed the collaboration and look forward to seeing their product being taken up by health organisations globally. No new name will be given to the new solution, instead it will be used by both companies under the Carestream and Hitachi Data Systems branding respectively.
Hitachi’s executive vice president for global solutions, strategy and development said: “The growth in storage is faster in healthcare than any other vertical market, yet the infrastructure maturity in these organizations is believed to be some three to five years behind the industry average. Working with Carestream Health, we are helping companies meet the data access and performance challenges which can directly impact the quality of patient care.”
Carestream Health’s president of healthcare information solutions, Michael W. Jackman, said: “Carestream’s relationship with Hitachi Data Systems will enable our customers to realize the significant benefits of our innovative Carestream information management solutions portfolio, combined with Hitachi’s proven best-in-class storage platforms.”
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