New Technology Helps Doctors View Large Digital Images on PCs
A new company has developed a way to view X-rays and CT and MRI scans without printing film, which can save physicians money and time, the Wall Street Journal reports. iSite Enterprise, developed by South San Francisco-based Stentor, Inc., "harnesses the Internet" to allow doctors see digital images on their personal computers "with just a few mouse clicks." The system works by moving large data files throughout a hospital network or to doctors in remote locations. iSite uses a "mathematical formula" to send information in pieces, but it still arrives as one image. The technology was codeveloped by Dr. Paul Chang of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which is an investor in Stentor. Stentor charges iSite customers on a "per-use basis" -- charging between $1.50 and $2.50 for each "study." One study can involve "as many as a thousand images," and hospitals are charged only once, regardless of how many times the images are viewed, and they are billed only for studies that they use. Hospitals using the technology include the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Kaiser Permanente's outpatient facility in San Francisco (Bandler, Wall Street Journal, 9/20).
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