Medical image sharing

This article is in list format but may read better as prose. You can help by converting this article, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (August 2021)

Medical image sharing is the electronic exchange of medical images between hospitals, physicians and patients. Rather than using traditional media, such as a CD or DVD, and either shipping it out or having patients carry it with them, technology now allows for the sharing of these images using the cloud. The primary format for images is DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine). Typically, non-image data such as reports may be attached in standard formats like PDF (Portable Document Format) during the sending process. Additionally, there are standards in the industry, such as IHE Cross Enterprise Document Sharing for Imaging (XDS-I), for managing the sharing of documents between healthcare enterprises. A typical architecture involved in setup is a locally installed server, which sits behind the firewall, allowing secure transmissions with outside facilities. In 2009, the Radiological Society of North America launched the "Image Share" project, with the goal of giving patients control of their imaging histories (reports and images) by allowing them to manage these records as they would online banking or shopping.^[1]