Cloud Enables Advances in Medical Imaging Innovation

DALLAS, April 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Patient diagnosis and treatment can be delayed as doctors wait for access to large imaging files, search through multiple systems for patient images, or request prior medical images. Henry Ford Health System and Baptist Health System have turned to cloud-enabled innovations from AT&T* to help them overcome time and cost consuming inefficiencies.

These hospital systems are just two of more than 150 implementations of AT&T ForHealth(SM) and other healthcare IT solutions adopted by healthcare providers and payers within the United States since late 2010. In 2012, cloud and mobility based solutions enabled AT&T to generate $5.6 billion in revenue from healthcare industry businesses, up from $4 billion in 2009.

Healthcare systems provide physicians with the ability to access, view and share medical images and associated reports in the cloud, ultimately providing patients with more timely diagnosis and treatment.

Providing Access to Medical Records
Detroit-based Henry Ford Heart & Vascular Institute (HVI), part of the Henry Ford Health System, generates 25,000 cardiac images each year. These images are digitally captured and are similar to an X-ray, but X-rays are digital pictures; cardiac images are more intense, like a little movie. The hospital needed a solution to store these increasingly large files, but a substantial investment for additional onsite IT storage infrastructure would only partially address the issue.

HVI installed AT&T Medical Imaging and Information Management, and as a result, HVI cardiologists at eight locations have real-time access to a single cloud-based, highly-secure repository of their patients' medical images. Storing the images off-site promotes business continuity and image security, so that the images and files are available when needed.  

"Before incorporating this AT&T solution, our storage technology was aging and we had no centralized access to cardiology images for our cardiologists," said Kevin Yee, Administrator, Cardiology, Henry Ford Health System. "We've been using AT&T's cloud-based medical imaging service for more than a year. And now, our doctors can now easily view patients' images and files for specialized consults."

Mobilizing and Connecting Physicians
In Birmingham, Alabama, Baptist Health System is using AT&T Medical Imaging and Information Management with an FDA-cleared mobile diagnostic viewer. With access to medical images in the AT&T cloud, referring physicians can easily review patients' images stored in a vendor-neutral format.

Doctors in this hospital system can also use their tablet or smartphone to access and diagnose patients the moment radiology images, such as MRI or CT scans, are available – all without outlaying any capital expense.

"We knew we needed to replace our onsite long-term archive to take full advantage of the benefits of the latest innovative technology," says Richard Shirey, Chief Information Officer, Baptist Health System. "Speed and accuracy are critical. That's why we're working with AT&T.  Our physicians will be able to access a patient's images faster and with less overhead through the cloud-based repository."

Improving Care
AT&T Medical Imaging and Information Management, winner of Frost & Sullivan's 2012 North American Visionary Innovation Award in Medical Imaging Informatics, is helping healthcare practitioners confidently make the shift to more coordinated care with the patient medical imaging and information in the highly-secure AT&T cloud.

"If you can help a health system function more efficiently, if you can save a doctor five minutes, you can provide a patient a better healthcare experience," said Eleanor Chye, Assistant Vice President, AT&T ForHealth, AT&T Business Solutions. "At AT&T, we're empowering our healthcare customers with innovative tools in areas such as cloud and mobility to help them provide care more easily and efficiently."

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world.  Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and internationally. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's largest 4G network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile Internet, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries.  It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse^® and AT&T │DIRECTV brands. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world.

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SOURCE AT&T Inc.