The companies say the new technology will enable hospitals and other health institutions to access distributed medical images through their existing Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS) applications and other systems.
The Grid Medical Archive Solution (GMAS) works by abstracting PACS from the underlying storage infrastructure via the use of Grid storage technologies to allow hospitals to share storage across distributed facilities, optimize utilization, simplify administration and decrease storage costs. The aim of the resulting system is to enhance PACS’ ability to deliver patient images throughout the organization, in a bid to improve diagnosis and treatment and to serve as a foundation for information-based medicine.
This solution is a prime example of how Grid computing is fundamentally changing the way customers interact with information technology, harnessing the combined power of heterogeneous computing devices and disparate information sources around the world to attack challenges in research, government, healthcare and commercial enterprises, said Ken King, IBM’s vice president of Grid computing.
