Moving Toward Seamless Interinstitutional Electronic Image Transfer.

Abstract

There is universal agreement that the retirement of medical image transfer via compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROMs) and other physical media is long overdue, especially in a world where it is almost impossible to purchase a new computer with a CD-ROM reader. It is embarrassing that medicine’s most technologically advanced specialty continues to rely on antiquated technology like CD-ROMs and facsimile machines to transfer information essential to radiology workflow and patient care. Despite the efforts of radiology’s leading specialty society initiatives such as Image Share and #DitchtheDisk, the response from industry leaders and the overall diagnostic imaging market has been slow to adopt modern image-sharing standards and interoperability.