Company Turns Remote Diagnostic Imaging App into 'Virtual Radiology Department'

Physicians and other medical professionals can now download an app that allows them to see scans from computed tomography, positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and single photon emission computed tomography on their iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, to perform diagnostic imaging on the go. 

According to a story at medimaging.net, the software – developed by MIM Software, Inc. a global provider of medical imaging software – allows images to be downloaded to the devices using MIMcloud, “an Internet-based service that allows secure upload and download of encrypted medical data”.

MIM recently received FDA 510k clearance for the app, Mobile MIM, which is available at the US App store, according to iclarified.com.

“This important mobile technology provides physicians with the ability to immediately view images and make diagnoses without having to be back at the workstation or wait for film,” said William Maisel, M.D., M.P.H., chief scientist and deputy director for science in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, in the story.

A MIM workstation can also be used to send the images to Mobile MIM.  The medimaging.net story points out that Mobile MIM is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant and expressly for use only when a physician can’t get to a workstation.

“The FDA’s decision to take an active interest in medical imaging apps being marketed to physicians is an important step for the future of medicine,” Mark Cain, CTO of MIM Software, told medimaging.net. “The app gives physicians and doctors anytime, anywhere access to important scans, raising the bar for efficiency, convenience, and patient care.” The story notes that the Mobile MIM App has been created as a “thick client,” which allows the data to be downloaded to the device for viewing instead of streaming over a server.

With Mobile MIM, users can zoom and pan, and display “volumetric data with multiplanar reconstruction,”according to medimaging.net.  Physicians can also measure “distance and intensity values,” look at and write notes, and display regions of interest. Stelios C. Orphanoudakis, at the University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece, writes that remote diagnostic imaging services can be seen as a “virtual radiology department,” but that care must be taken in proper training and legal issues, if there are any, must be considered.

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