Healthcare
The two areas of healthcare that can benefit from archiving are PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) and HIS (Hospital Information Systems) or CIS (Clinical Information System).
PACS deals with the long-term preservation and retrieval of digital patient images from various radiology modalities. Radiologists use a variety of imaging systems; x-ray, ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to diagnose and treat diseases.
HIS deals with the administration of a hospital and so includes patient records. HIS is used to improve the health of a specific patient, by understanding previous treatments and improving the health of the general population, by identifying trends.
QStar’s 3-2-1 Archiving and Data Protection Best Practice is particularly relevant to the healthcare market. Access to information must be fast in an emergency situation, data must be secure for a set period of time, and a disaster prevention strategy should be employed.
Many hospitals use Content Addressable Storage (CAS) or Object Storage, as a way of providing both the performance and security required. An alternative is to use a blend of RAID and removable media (tape, optical or removable disk).
An offsite copy is highly desirable, in case of a primary site failure (due to a disaster – fire, flood). Removable media provides a low-cost option to create an additional copy which can be transported to another site. Alternatively, replication technology, like HSM Archive Replicator software, can be used to copy data to another archive store at a remote site or to Cloud.
New legislation associated with data privacy has meant the inclusion of encryption on archive media to prevent unauthorized access.
QStar’s HSM Archive Manager and HSM Synchronous Replicator software provide the functionality to create a flexible and resilient ‘Vendor Neutral’ archive. CAS or Object Storage and RAID can be blended with Tape, Optical or Removable Disk to provide both speed and security for archived data.
Retention management functionality can be used to securely retain data for a pre-determined number of years. QStar also provides archive options, adding encryption or digital signature to guarantee data authenticity and unauthorized access protection.
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