Crowd-Funded, Cloud-Based System for Medical Imaging Accessing, Storing, and Sharing

The first crowd-funding campaign has been established to provide a cloud-based system for free access to medical images.

Recent telemedicine and technologic developments have helped reduce waste and cost, while speeding up diagnosis for millions of people. However, in spite of these recent advances, thousands of medical images are thrown away yearly, wasting an excessive amount of time, energy, money, and resources.

Wasted images translate into higher costs for patients and diagnostic time lost. The World Health Organization (WHO; Geneva, Switzerland) estimates more than 30% of medical images are lost every year, delaying crucial diagnoses and costing patients’ their health.
myMedImage (Palm Springs, CA, USA) has begun a crowd-funding campaign to make access to this Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM)-compliant picture archiving and communication system (PACS) entirely free of charge to patients and participating physicians, and plans to raise over USD 200,000 via a crowd-funding campaign on IndieGogo (Please see Related Links below).

myMedImage directly links supported patients anywhere to primary care and specialty physicians through its novel medical imaging sharing and consultative network. The model ensures high quality, timely care for patients by maintaining the patient-physician contract.

The rising use of cell phones, iPads, and other portable devices accessing the Internet, even in remote locations, shows that it is now possible for medical images and patient videos to be shared globally. The WHO estimates 20%–30% of cases cannot be diagnosed through clinical exam and patient history alone; however, two-thirds of the earth’s population has no access to medical imaging—a key additional diagnostic strategy for physicians.

Dr. Chris Hancock, radiologist and CEO of myMedImage, said, “We asked ourselves, how could we solve this real world problem? How could we make an EHR/HIPAA [electronic health record/Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996], DICOM-compliant PACS sharing, storing and retrieval system for managing images and data for remote or inaccessible patients? How could we leverage specialists so those patients in locations without established healthcare infrastructures could access skilled diagnostics? We came up with a solution that does all this and more, and provides access to specialty care that so many worldwide desperately need.”

The current system for accessing medical images is not working: it is too inflexible and is a growing global problem. The myMedImage network allows diagnostic images to be viewed in a full-featured viewer using vendor-neutral uploading software and storage enabling access anywhere, by anyone with an internet-connected device—smartphone, tablet, and browser.

The system expands on the possibilities of conventional systems by providing off-site viewing and reporting capabilities, such as distance education, telediagnosis. It enables clinicians in different physical regions to access the same data simultaneously for teleradiology.

This telemedicine system can accept medical image studies from all areas of medical imaging including: magnetic resonance (MR), ultrasound (US), positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT), endoscopy (ES), mammogram (MG), digital mammography (DM), digital radiography (DR), computed radiography (CR), and ophthalmology. Furthermore, they are HIPAA, DICOM-compliant PACS, compatible with EHR systems and pass the meaningful use (MU) test.

myMedImage Humanitarian Telemedicine network is helping a philanthropic group of doctors to contribute to enhance the lives of impoverished and medically underserved patients globally. myMedImage is focused on connecting physicians with the neediest patients while streamlining the total process; preventing unnecessary, wasted, and duplicate medical imaging. Contributors know that their gifts go directly to helping others in need through the network.

myMedImage LLC, is an enterprise that connects patients anywhere in the world to primary care and specialty physicians through a medical imaging sharing and consultative network. The company links medical imaging centers to patients and humanitarian telemedicine, making it possible to share medical images anywhere, anytime, on any internet connected platform using encryption technology on an effectively organized platform.

Related Links:
myMedImage
IndieGogo Crowd-Funding Campaign