Medical Images and Advances Towards The Electronic Patient
Record (Including Scanning of Historical Documents) to Blame for
Majority of Hospital Data Volumes Increasing This Year
Ashtead, UK – 25th May 2010 – Research from a global
survey by BridgeHead Software,
the Healthcare
Storage Virtualization (HSV) company, has revealed that medical
images, scanned documents, email and advances towards the
Electronic Patient Record (EPR – also known as the Electronic
Health Record (EHR)) are the likely causes for the upsurge in
healthcare data that is already challenging hospitals and set to
grow further in the foreseeable future.
BridgeHead Software logo
Results from the Data Management Healthcheck 2010 – a
global survey into the healthcare industry’s ongoing
strategies for managing their IT systems – found that over
two-thirds (69 percent) of healthcare organisations expected their
data volumes to increase this year. Less than six percent expected
data volumes to stay constant and one percent expected data volumes
to decrease.
The majority (65 percent) of respondents who expected their data
volumes to increase said PACS imaging files were the main culprits,
followed by EPR files (45.5 percent) and scanned documents, e.g.
proof of insurance and healthcare proxy (43 percent).
Significantly, 84 percent of respondents said over half their
healthcare organisations’ data was over six months old. Yet
only 26 percent claimed to have a full archiving capability that
migrated content to the appropriate storage tiers as dictated by
their pre-defined policies.
The research also discovered that over 44 percent of hospitals
were managing over 5TB on a primary store. Only 12 percent said
they were managing less than 1TB on a primary store.
“The evidence speaks for itself,” said John
McCann, Director of Marketing at BridgeHead Software. “Data
volumes are increasing as the world of healthcare continues to
embrace the digital age. A troubling trend we’ve noticed,
however, is that some healthcare organisations are not paying due
attention to their data management and storage solution strategies.
Many of the hospitals’ IT infrastructures are not geared up
to handle the rise in data resulting from the increased use of
medical images, the continued move towards the Electronic Health
Record (including historical document scanning) and the massive
upsurge in office-based computing e.g. emails, spreadsheets, word
processing documents. Many are ignoring the problem and hoping it
will go away, while others are implementing quick fixes that
resolve the issue for now, but are not future-proof. As data
volumes continue to grow, some organisations will find their
challenges gradually become harder—not easier—to
resolve.”
McCann added, “However, savvy healthcare IT
professionals recognise that underpinning their digital
environments with a robust data management and storage strategy can
not only help maximise the full value of their clinical
information, but can also help them save time, reduce costs, lower
carbon emissions from their IT infrastructures, and, ultimately,
improve patient care.
“BridgeHead Software’s Healthcare Storage
Virtualization (HSV is a technology platform that decouples
applications from the storage device and creates common pools of
shareable storage hardware that can be accessed as needed,
regardless of the application or data type. HSV is a
vendor-agnostic platform that underpins the EPR, allowing
healthcare organisations to take full control and ownership of
their clinical data regardless of supposed obligations to other
storage and imaging vendors.”
BridgeHead Software
first introduced Healthcare Storage Virtualization to UK audiences
at Health Informatics Congress (HC2010) in Birmingham this
April. “Healthcare Storage Virtualization embodies our ethos
of supporting and underpinning the electronic patient record and
empowering IT at hospitals of all sizes to meet growing storage
needs without compromising on current hardware brand or media
type,” explained BridgeHead Software’s CEO, Tony
Cotterill. “HSV provides the essential foundation for
intelligent storage supporting all applications across the entire
hospital – from archiving DICOM images from the PACS system
to scanning documents for the EPR system.”
At HC2010, BridgeHead Software also released results from the
Data Management Healthcheck’s section devoted to green
IT. The survey found that less than a quarter of
respondents’ hospitals had a specific CO2 reduction target.
Just 16 percent monitored energy consumption across their IT
infrastructures on a regular basis, and less than three percent
claimed to use a carbon-offset scheme to target data centre carbon
emissions.
(ends)
Data Management Healthcheck 2010
To request additional information or sign up to receive an
executive summary of the research when it is available, please
contact Rose Ross at rose@omarketing.co.uk
(ends)
Media Contacts
UK and EMEA
Rose Ross
Omarketing
+44 208 255 5225
+44 7976 154597
www.twitter.com/Omarketingnews
US
Elizabeth S. Glaser
Dodge Communications
770-576-2551
eglaser@dodgecomunications.com
About BridgeHead Software
BridgeHead Software, the Healthcare Storage Virtualization (HSV)
company, offers a scalable, future-proof platform to overcome
rising data volumes and increasing storage costs while delivering
peace of mind around the access, availability and protection of
critical electronic patient data.
Trusted by more than 1,000 hospitals worldwide, BridgeHead
Software solves healthcare organisations’ backup, recovery
and archiving challenges. BridgeHead’s HSV solutions are
designed to operate with any hospital’s chosen software
applications and storage hardware, regardless of vendor. This
presents healthcare organisations with more choice, flexibility and
control over the way data is accessed, protected and managed. The
net effect – better utilisation of hardware resources and,
more importantly, the efficient distribution, availability and use
of vital healthcare data.
To learn more about BridgeHead Software, visit http://www.bridgeheadsoftware.com
To follow BridgeHead Software on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/BridgeHeadHSV
About Healthcare Storage Virtualization (HSV)
Healthcare Storage Virtualization is a technology platform
that decouples software applications from the physical storage
hardware on which the application data resides. By separating these
applications from the storage device/s, healthcare organisations
have a lot more choice, flexibility and control over the way data
is accessed, protected and managed. The net effect – better
utilisation of hardware resources and, more importantly, the
efficient access and use of critical electronic patient data.
HSV allows healthcare organisations to take ownership of their
data even though it may reside on disparate software and hardware
systems. Being vendor-agnostic, BridgeHead HSV has the ability to
interface with any storage platform intelligently, creating better
and broader availability of content as well as prohibiting unwanted
access and providing comprehensive disaster recovery
capability.
In addition, BridgeHead HSV technology offers powerful
connectivity to all storage media types. As part of its advanced
data protection and archiving features, HSV allows files to be
transformed (e.g. compressed and de-duplicated) invisibly in the
background, irrespective of media type and functionality, vastly
reducing the capacity required across the storage real estate and
often delaying the need for hardware upgrades.
Finally, BridgeHead’s focus on healthcare lies at the
heart of HSV. Consequently, all of the common native standards
found within healthcare IT are supported e.g. HL7, DICOM XDS style
interfaces etc. This support allows speedy integration of the HSV
solution resulting in a more rapid return on investment.
