NHS national image-sharing platform hits ‘record usage’

A national image sharing platform used by NHS organisations, patients and independent service providers is now being used to share as many as 500 images per second, according to technology supplier Sectra.

The Image Exchange Portal (IEP) was introduced to the NHS in 2009 to facilitate image-sharing between trusts. Hosted by Sectra, the vendor-neutral system enables healthcare providers and other users to securely exchange and access imaging information, including x-rays, CT, MRI and ultrasound scans.

Sectra said the portal has seen “record usage” as scanning volumes rise and the NHS looks to the independent sector to help tackle backlogs in diagnostics tests.

Chris Scarisbrick, deputy managing director for Sectra, said: “Developed for the NHS originally as a means to share radiology imaging between individual hospitals, the role of IEP has changed in line with the needs of a health service now dealing with greater diagnostic demands than ever before. 

“As hospitals work hard to tackle a substantial diagnostic backlog, the portal has become an important means to share diagnostic imaging with the independent sector, to help to ensure timely diagnosis for patients.

“And as more and more ‘ologies’ become digital, it is supporting national access to more than just radiology images.”

According to the company, the IEP is currently used by more than 450,000 people and was used to transmit almost 12 million patient imaging studies in 2023, up from approximately 2.8 million in 2012. 

A growing number of organisations beyond NHS trusts now use the portal, including stroke and cancer networks, private healthcare groups, teleradiology reporting providers and surgical 3D modelling companies, Sectra said.

Steven Frisby, IEP national account manager at Sectra, said the growing expectation that patients have access to their data had also fuelled usage.

“Patients are increasingly demanding access to their own imaging. And as medical frontiers expand, and technological capabilities in healthcare continue to evolve, the ability to access imaging through a secure platform, and in ways that protect patient data, is ever more important.

“Use of the image exchange portal continues to expand in ways that couldn’t have been envisioned 15 years ago when it was first introduced into the NHS.

“Patients are increasingly demanding access to their own imaging and as medical frontiers expand, and technological capabilities in healthcare continue to evolve, the ability to access imaging through a secure platform, and in ways that protect patient data, is ever more important.

“Now, as the NHS seeks new ways to share images nationally, we welcome conversations on how this national platform can continue to evolve as we ensure it receives the investment needed to meet the needs of healthcare into the future.”