By Healthcare Facilities Today

With today's far-ranging health care challenges, it's hard to be neutral about vendor neutral archiving (VNA), according to a recent blog on DotMEd.com 

VNA's ability to translate data to a consistent format and enable communication across hospital departments, enterprises and disparate IT systems, allows it to address many of today's most pressing healthcare issues, according to Greg Strowig, chief operating officer of TeraMedica Inc., a vendor neutral architecture company based in Milwaukee, Wis. 

Additionally, after years of relinquishing some, if not all, control of PACS and other important data to IT vendors, a VNA puts healthcare facilities back in control, Strowig says 

VNAs are predicted to store 31% of all new imaging studies worldwide by 2016, according to a recent report by InMedica, the leading independent provider of market research and consultancy to the global medical electronics industry. 

Key attributes of a VNA include:

• Patient-centric storage. 

• Open standards. 

• Management of images and related information. 

• Support for query, storage and retrieval. 

• Support for multiple departments, enterprise and regional architectures. 

• Maintenance of patient privacy and security though audit trails. 

Read the blog.