How high-speed and low-latency connectivity are powering the future of mobile imaging

When it comes to mobile imaging, the quality of care is directly connected to the quality of the data. In an industry where milliseconds matter—latency, disruptions and outages directly affect the timeliness and quality of care. To improve patient outcomes, healthcare organizations require a reliable and robust network infrastructure that securely powers the ability to view, store and share images quickly and easily across cloud and on-premise applications.

With more than half of all medical procedures requiring radiological diagnostics, mobile imaging makes it possible to provide radiology services to patients across the care continuum no matter where they are. As a result, the demand for mobile radiology is steadily increasing. Demand for mobile X-ray, for instance, nearly doubled during the pandemic. And by 2026, the global market for Mobile Imaging Services is anticipated to reach $2.2 billion.

The primary reason for mobile radiology's growth is that it improves patient care. The increased use of mobile radiology offers a glimpse into the future—one where the possibility of real-time healthcare can profoundly change and improve the patient outcome. By being able to provide digital X-ray and other imaging services from a mobile cart or other portable systems, medical professionals can perform imaging examinations almost anywhere. This offers more accessibility to at-risk or marginalized populations while also creating a more efficient and often more effective form of treatment.

As agility and mobility drive advancements in care, more sophisticated network technology is needed to support these improvements.

New healthcare technologies include cloud-based applications, portals, digital front door technologies and patient engagement tools. Adoption of these technologies will not only keep healthcare systems competitive but help them to fuel further innovation to meet consumers’ growing preferences for more digital care options. Imaging data, for instance, requires an enormous amount of storage. A digital breast tomosynthesis, for example, takes 11 images in seven seconds, and can result in over 100 images per breast.

Some of healthcare's most critical points of care occur in complex environments where it can be difficult to get important diagnostic insights from a fixed radiography room. For instance, critically ill ICU patients or those with life-threatening trauma injuries are at significant risk of complications from transport. Mobile radiology eliminates the need to take this risk with patient health by bringing the diagnostic device directly to the patient's bedside. And it frees up transport staff to focus more of their time on patient care.

Mobile technology improves radiology workflow

In addition to using mobile radiology at patient bedsides, many mobile technologies and applications, including image viewers, remote desktop access, screen sharing and real-time consultation, further support the ability to make radiology diagnostics possible from anywhere. Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) applications allow for remote viewing of imaging studies, which aids collaboration, consultation and faster diagnosis and treatment.

Multiple applications are available to stream data from imaging studies to mobile devices. These applications, serving as mobile PACS workstations, can aid almost every step of the imaging workflow, including the order entry system, image generation and interpretation and delivery of radiology reports to requesting physicians.

While caching servers on-premises for performance reasons is still the norm with centralized long-term storage, for most health systems, there is a need to modernize and move to the cloud. As a result, many health systems have moved away from traditional storage models and are instead embracing the cloud. But equally important, the network must also be able to move large files around quickly and allow physicians to pull them up or down from the cloud as needed, which often requires greater bandwidth speeds.

Migration to the cloud supports emerging technology applications that will increase patient access, quick turnaround and agility. And it will allow greater mobility of diagnostic devices like mobile radiology and telemedicine. In one survey by HIMSS, seventy-three percent of respondents agreed cloud access was either “critical” or “very important” to the advancement of their digital health innovation initiatives.

Consequently, healthcare systems are increasingly adopting a hybrid, multi-cloud environment as they seek to combine conventional mainframes with the security and customizability of private clouds as well as the scalability of public cloud services.

Customized healthcare solutions to support your network needs

Health systems need a modern, trusted partner to better support mobile radiology and future healthcare technologies. We support healthcare advancements by helping your organization ensure it has a high-capacity fiber infrastructure that is fast, secure, reliable and compatible with HIPAA requirements.

Depending on where you are in your digital transformation journey, we’ll listen to your unique needs and design solutions to solve your pressing network needs. Whether it’s building new cloud-first networks with secure SD-WAN or transitioning to a hybrid network architecture that integrates your existing network, our goal is to let you migrate at your own pace. Our healthcare solutions also include a cloud-based portal that allows for real-time insights and administration of the network, including traffic flow and bandwidth capacity.

Learn more about how Spectrum Enterprise can help support your practice’s mobile technology innovation.