Data Center Viewer Provides Access to Images on Mobile Digital Devices

Clinicians will be able to view reference images, including large, multislice computed tomography (CT) studies, as part of the electronic health record (EHR) on mobile digital devices.

Agfa HealthCare (Mortsel, Belgium; www.agfa.com/healthcare), a provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare information technology (IT) solutions, presented its technology at Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2010, held November 28 to December 3, 2010 in Chicago, IL, USA, a work in progress software version for its Impax Data Center Viewer, powered by Xero technology, to enable support on Apple's (Cupertino, CA, USA; www.apple.com) iPad mobile digital device.

The software solution needs no additional client software or plug-ins. The Impax Data Center Viewer powered by Xero is an enterprise medical image viewer, allowing clinicians to access imaging information securely from any authorized location, on a variety of web-enabled devices. No additional client software or plug-ins are required (not even Adobe Flash Player, Microsoft ActiveX, Microsoft Silverlight, Oracle Java, a DLL, an EXE). The viewer provides a robust software solution for image enabling an EHR or for image sharing among caregivers.

"Because Agfa HealthCare's Xero technology doesn't require any sort of software download, it is ideally suited for the iPad,” said Don Dennison, director of eHealth and regional health, Agfa HealthCare. "There is no applet required. With this work in progress version of the Impax Data Center Viewer, a clinician would be able to easily view a patient's imaging record through the iPad or any popular browser.”

As EHR and electronic medical record (EMR) applications are becoming specifically designed for the iPad, the need for a reliable, easily accessible imaging viewer is becoming more important. Many in the industry forecast that the iPad may help facilitate EHR adoption. Agfa HealthCare is working on supporting access from the iPad viewer to help further this adoption.

Agfa HealthCare's Xero technology already brings medical images to any personal computer (PC) and any popular browser; iPad compatibility will further expand the solution's reach to the point of care. Clinicians will be able to view securely reference images, including large multi-slice CTs, as well as view reports, once they access the electronic medical records on the iPad.

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