Health Care Reform-Can the Medical Industry Enter the Digital Age

June 29, 2009 | Data Storage

With all the excitement about the health care reform and climbing costs of the entire health care system it’s amazing to consider that much of the health system still uses paper to administer patients records.  The task is so monumental that it’s difficult to see how an entire industry can be reformed so soon.  Current medical data systems are very much proprietary and do not share well with others.  In order for the data conversion to take place it needs to be simplified for the health care professionals.

This may appear simple but the requirements of a software package that is

• secure
• reliable
• Can exchange data with other remote systems using high-level encryption
• modular: so various software interfaces can be developed with medical digital equipment and analog.
• Fast
• modular data storage
• Simplicity
• Can be easily deployed in medical offices.

Software aside the data storage requirements would really need to be mapped out on a local health care provider level and a On-line database for medical records. Essentially the local doctors records are uploaded every so often to a national database (or regional).  Records would need to be scanned in or manually entered into a database in order to keep local copies current and the larger backup database that provides coverage to all subscribing agencies.  This would be a non-profit type operation.

There are some medical “PACS “  currently available ( picture archiving and communication systems ) but there is no common image metadata platform.  Meta data is the ‘tag’ that is often attached to a image that tells a wide range of information about the image.  Data can also be added to the meta description to help identify the image changes.   DICOM does not fully specify the ‘metadata’ tags stored with images to annotate and describe them, so integrators of medical imaging equipment have wide latitude to create DICOM-compliant files that differ in the meaning and representation of this metadata.

A feature common to most PACS is to read and store the metadata from all the images into a central database however the differences between integrators’ DICOM implementations make this a difficult task.  It really appears to be a daunting task to even get the industry to convert to a common metatag or be able to ignore non-compliant data.

With several studies showing only 22% of PACS in health care and many doctors completely in the dark about how to go about converting it’s going to a be a task in line with building the pyramids.

Or building a superhighway for the health care of our nation.

http://medical.nema.org

Flickr image takomabibelot

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My DVD Disc can Hold More then Your Blu-ray Disc

May 24, 2009 | Data Storage

With all the talk going around with new breakthroughs in optical technology including the news* from down under (Swinburne University of Technology in Australia) about 5D storage which is reported to hold 10 Terabytes, which is about 2,381 single layer DVD recordable or 280 dual sided DVD+R discs.  It turns out it’s those little nano-particles everyone has been talking about recently.

This should be a huge breakthrough that will get all the pesky tape back-up and hard drives out of the picture permanently?

Thus my point: Data storage size and cost per GB (or Terabyte) does not matter any more.  We certainly know that the application for storage is significant (optical for archive, tape for capacity) but time and time again in both business storage and consumer based buying habits the ‘value’ is far beyond the ’storage capacity’.  This is is the the dilemma facing Blu-ray right now.  The perception of value placed on different formats was really blown away with the Apple iPod.  Distribution (and convenience) over storage function.  Really the game changer is the architecture of distribution and retention vs. per storage capability.

This makes sense as most of us do not walk around with data storage appliances strapped to our backs for maximum storage: we choose the most convenient package for our needs.  The brilliance of the iPod is it took relatively small storage, a compression audio format that reduces the size 20x or more (MP3) , a network for distribution (iStore) and a Digital management console  iTunes and created a sensation based around more, not better.

Now we hard core iPod fans would be offended by “not better”  right?   It effectively solves the users problem with discs or other types of storage like analog audio tape (we used to call them cassette tapes   )  in portability and transport.  Although I listened to one person on the radio discussing the days of the “boom box” and the social buzz around one at the time. Now no one gathers around the box listening to the jams: it’s all on-line.

With USB flash storing up to 64GB (or more) it certainly seems a winner in the portable world but what is USB flash?    It’s a connector (USB) which interfaces with a computer or other storage device.  USB is not the technology that makes non-volatile or ” flash” memory the game-changer (and the ability to erase in small sectors).  It’s all about the connection, the interface cable.

Consider the fact that Micro SD is a strong contender for replacing the optical disc.  Consider how it interfaces with computers.  It’s focus is at cell phones, “smart phones” which don’t easily and conveniently interface with USB without an adapter.

I wonder what can be done with nano-particles and flash non-volatile memory.  That is use electricity to change the structure of the particles instead of laser light.  How will that interface?  will the ‘drive’ become obsolete?

Solid state memory does not spin and the media and “drive” are combined.

All it has to do is plug in to the device. Or a real Apple ‘Nano’  =  nano-particles as in a couple of Terabytes of song and video storage.

*If you want to read the original news source for the new 5 dimensional storage   Reuters

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DVDRW makes re-using DVDs a Snap

May 14, 2009 | Recordable DVDs

DVD+RW for Recording and Erasing

DVDRW is the format of choice when you want to record and erase your DVDs.  Two formats exist, DVD-RW which is not widely used or supported and DVD+RW which is the format of choice for rewritable DVD discs.  DVD+RW blank discs only come in single layer which holds about 4.3Gb formatted.  There are mini DVD+RW too which allow special camcorders to record and edit the content. The standard 120mm DVD+RW is the most widely used and makes an excellent compliment to a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) so you can use both the built in hard drive or the rewritable DVDRW.   Even a standalone DVD recorder can provide rewritable capabilities with the ability to remove the disc and place another DVDRW and later erase a show you no longer wish to watch.  DVD+RW can be rewritten 100’s of times  so you are not wasting write-once DVDs for just something you want to watch once and then erase.

Verbatim DVD+RW provides a great option for high quality (in this case long rewritable life) DVDRW.

DVD+RW is not an archival format and really serves as a temporary storage method spanning several years.  Compatibility between players and recorders can become an issue so it’s best to store your long term data on write once DVD+R or DVD-R.

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Holographic Recordable Optical Media

April 29, 2009 | Data Storage

The New York Times  had an article about GE and it’s great breakthrough with holographic optical media.  This new format sports 300GB storage. The BBC also had an article about the GE Breakthrough

Now GE is not the only one in this field nor is anything new about this.

InPhase technologies Tapestry holographic system is actually deployed in Beta for at least a year and provides 300GB storage with 50 year archive  lifetime. 800GB just around the corner.  Where are the articles?    Who cares about GE anyway?

This has been the holy grail of optical storage for a long time with the promise of infinite storage / permanent archive. Unfortunately other technologies such as magnetic hard drives, solid state hard drives, flash and tape have all been expanding rapidly in native storage.  Now you don’t even need a physical device to backup data: it can be backed up to a cloud computing system.  So where in this mix does optical still have advantages over near-line and off-line storage?

Optical discs provide several advantages over the other near-line and off-line storage. Backup and archiving is not a single layer of storage technology but an onion with many layers of protection. I mean that you have to develop your strategy around your hard drive array (your on-line storage).  Running a RAID array for fault tolerance is an excellent first layer of defense.   The next layer would be a snapshot device like a optical disc archive.  The final layer being a tape backup which backs up the entire system.  Snapshot backups allow for quick restoration points in a network. As most of us know it is far easier restoring from a hierarchical data set then tape which requires a complete restore which is extremely time consuming and disruptive.

This is really where optical storage shines and the promise of greater capacity storage through recordable Blu-ray and holographic disc storage is necessary given the limitations of DVD for data storage.  Look to InPhase Technologies and not GE

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Taiyo Yuden Media is changing it’s name to – JVC Advanced Media U.S.A.

April 8, 2009 | Random Blackouts

NEWS – (Taiyo Yuden)
-Taiyo Yuden Media is changing it’s name to – JVC Advanced Media U.S.A. – effective immediately (as of 4/1/09).
At this time, no schedule is set for the transition to JVC named products.
All new sku’s will be under the acquired JVC brand name, current sku’s will transition in about 3-6 months.
This should bring no change to our normal day to day business selling Taiyo Yuden, just the name change to JVC.   All media will continue to be manufactured in Japan to the same high quality standards by Taiyo Yuden (now JVC Advanced Media U.S.A ).

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