Cancer mortality rates have decreased as new technologies have been introduced into the field of healthcare, but these new technologies can sometimes present new challenges. There is no better example than in the fight against breast cancer.

In the past five years, no sector of healthcare has had as big a target on its back as has advanced diagnostic imaging services. Representatives of commercial insurance companies, politicians and even the media all have gravitated to using an MRI or CT service as the prime example of healthcare system waste.

Data storage for any application is an assumed liability for all users. Whether capacity is expected on a laptop, cellular phone or clinical application, users of specific applications rely on the presence of storage capacity and information access with the same level of expectation that there will be air to breathe.

When David Blumenthal, M.D., National Coordinator for Health Information Technology wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine1, “Information is the lifeblood of modern medicine. Health information technology (HIT) is destined to be its circulatory system,” he clearly drew a connection between digital medical data and the delivery of care.

February 4, 2010 - “Information is the lifeblood of modern medicine. Health information technology is destined to be its circulatory system.”1