Markham Stouffville Hospital puts patients in control of their imaging records with PocketHealth

Digital-first hospital takes aim at eliminating CDs in their workflow

Markham, ON – May 7th 2019

Markham Stouffville Hospital (MSH) has partnered with PocketHealth, a Toronto-based digital health company, to provide patients with online access to their medical imaging records, in their original diagnostic format.

Historically, accessing and sharing imaging records had been time-consuming process for both patients and hospital staff. Patients would have to pick up a CD from MSH every time they wanted to review new exams with a physician — or wanted a copy for their own personal records — and each CD request could take hours to days to process.

Since PocketHealth’s integration in April 2019, MSH patients have been able to store their entire medical imaging history on the PocketHealth platform: a convenient and secure website that allows patients to view and share imaging records from any device, anywhere.

There is a $5.00 transfer fee at the time of enrolment, and it includes permanent access to all previous imaging records at the hospital, as well as new exams patients undergo over the following two weeks. Once patients receive access, they can share their imaging in their original format (DICOM) electronically with any physician, or even burn their own CD or USB from home. Their physicians can then view the imaging on any device in a Health Canada/FDA-certified viewer in seconds, without any software or account set-up required.

Lynne Campkin, Director of Diagnostic and Laboratory Services at MSH, says the partnership was about finding a common-sense replacement for CD-burning: “We saw PocketHealth as an opportunity to help patients have access to their imaging records, while mitigating the time and cost burden that has always accompanied CD copies. At the same time, we’re looking forward to benefiting from greater efficiencies internally as our CD-burning volume decreases due to this new option for patients.”

Rishi Nayyar, CEO of PocketHealth, added: “We’re excited to see a forward-thinking institution like MSH choose PocketHealth to modernize their imaging release process. We know that when patients responsibly control their health data, everyone within their circle of care benefits. For that reason, we’re grateful to have been able to work with the MSH team on making online imaging access a reality for their patient population.”

Markham Stouffville Hospital joins over 500 other hospitals, clinics and mobile imaging sites across North America that have deployed the PocketHealth platform for their patients.

About Markham Stouffville Hospital:

Markham Stouffville Hospital is a leading community hospital with 329 beds. The hospital provides diagnostic and emergency services and delivers clinical programs in acute care medicine and surgery, addictions and mental health, and childbirth and children’s services. Our Markham and Uxbridge sites and the Reactivation Care Centre (RCC) provide high quality, patient-centred, care to over 412,000 patients each year. Partnering with other specialist providers, the hospital’s 500 physicians, 23 midwives, over 2,300 staff and nearly 1,300 volunteers make it the centre of community care for the residents of the City of Markham, the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville and the Township of Uxbridge. For more information: visit www.msh.on.ca.

About PocketHealth:

PocketHealth is a patient-centric cloud platform that enables imaging providers across North America to share imaging records electronically with patients, instantly and securely. Since its launch in 2016, the platform has grown its functionality to enable direct sharing between hospitals and physicians, as well as instant DICOM retrieval and automated importing capability, creating a unified image management solution for their over 500 hospital and imaging clinic customers across North America. The company believes that by placing patients at the center of the record release process, data moves more ethically, easily and securely throughout the care journey. Learn more at www.pocket.health.