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Green Medicine: Reduce Your Carbon Footprint with Secure File Transfer

By: David Boyer

Although the term "secure file transfer" may not be immediately familiAR to some RT professionals, the concept of sending large files electronically is quite commonplace, especially since most of today's imaging and diagnostic systems are computer-based.

As the video architect for Indianapolis-based Clarian Health, I am responsible for finding and implementing tools that enable and allow for the collaboration and sharing of patient data between physicians and clinicians. This includes large clinical files such as EEGs, X-rays, echocardiograms, and sleep studies.

Given the sheer size of these images and the stringent security requirements of Clarian Health, e-mail was not an option for collaboration. Therefore, patients were required to wait until the medical information was copied to a CD/DVD and mailed or sent overnight. The process was inconvenient for patients and physicians and delayed treatment.

Working closely with Clarian's telemedicine team, I set out to find a solution that would enable us to overcome large file transfer issues while maintaining compliance. Much to my surprise, in deploying Palo Alto, Calif.-based Accellion's Secure Managed File Transfer solution, we would receive some unexpected and very welcome green benefits, including reduced CO2 emissions and the elimination of CD/DVDs and associated packaging materials.

Image Sharing in Action

Digital information is changing the healthcare industry. However, along with its many benefits, it has created a number of IT-related challenges. For example, the advent of clinical PC-based equipment provides organizations like Clarian the opportunity to provide greater customer care and convenience by eliminating geographical barriers. Yet with average file sizes of digitized images ranging from 40 to 60 MBs – and in some cases larger – there is a new challenge: how to securely share large amounts of data electronically so physicians and clinicians in various locations can access them quickly.

Technology advances, such as Accellion's secure file transfer appliance, are paving the way for healthcare organizations, enabling large images (up to 20 GBs in size) to be shared in near realtime in a highly secure and trackable manner. For geographically dispersed organizations such as Clarian, it provides a host of opportunities to improve patient care.

In addition to making it possible for specialists in Indianapolis to care for patients who are sometimes hours away in more rural parts of Indiana, such as Evansville, Bedford, Terre Haute, South Bend, and Fort Wayne, it is enabling us to expand our global reach as well.

A number of our physicians are part of a global outreach program through which they travel to places like Dubai to perform surgeries on children. In the past, post-operative follow-up was minimal, as it required shipping images and other test data too large for e-mail by way of worldwide carriers back here to the U.S. The associated costs and time delays made it impossible for physicians to provide the level of follow-up desired.

With the ability to replace physical delivery of information and images with digital delivery via Accellion, physicians can now expand their program to include more thorough post-operative follow-up.

The Greener Side of Going Digital

In addition to providing better patient care in a more economical manner, there are significant environmental benefits associated with the move to digital delivery of information.

Over the past two years, Clarian has consistently averaged two or three studies a week sent via Accellion Secure File Transfer, studies which were previously sent via physical delivery. From a return on investment (ROI) standpoint, this equates to a significant reduction in carbon emissions, shipping costs, materials (CD/DVDs), and associated packaging.

The move to digital delivery has also enabled Clarian to pass the eco-friendly benefits along to our patients. By eliminating the need for patients to drive long distances to meet with medical specialists, they too are able to save travel expenses and reduce their use of fossil fuels.

The ROI associated with deploying this solution is the ability to provide better service for our patients while doing so in an eco-friendly manner. Today, Clarian physicians and clinicians have the ability to collaborate much more quickly regardless of geographic barriers.

—David Boyer is video architect for Clarian Health, where he is responsible for all videoconferencing and telemedicine support. Direct all questions and comments to editorial@rt-image.com.