Imaging systems provider Carestream, Rochester, NY, says that its online monitoring system, Smart Link, “helps ensure optimal system performance and uptime by continuously monitoring operations of its healthcare IT and digital imaging systems at healthcare providers across the globe.”
In a recent press release, Carestream reported that its Smart Link personnel remotely monitor more than 100 activities for Vue RIS+PACS systems to ensure they stay within customized threshold levels established by each healthcare provider. The service offers tiered alert levels that direct the Smart Link support team to take immediate action to prevent a disruption in service. Critical alerts, for example, show up as red on the dashboard, and an email notification and phone call alarm are sent to the Smart Link team.
“Our staff can log into the user’s system, diagnose the problem, and take the necessary action to resolve the issue anywhere in the world,” Carestream’s cloud security manager Mike Romansky said. “Correcting critical problems is urgent, because some situations may cause a RIS or PACS to shut down and prevent diagnostic imaging studies from being ordered, accessed, transmitted to a PACS, or stored in an archive.”
Romansky said Carestream can usually detect and correct a problem before the provider knows it has occurred. The company uses several secure methods to link to healthcare providers’ locations, including a hardware-based VPN solution that supports a variety of network configurations or a direct connection via the Internet that involves secure, encrypted communications with SSL, multi-level authentication, role-based authorization, and digital certificates.
Smart Link is provided as part of Carestream’s customer service maintenance agreements.
