Enabling The Future of Imaging and Healthcare Interoperability - “Ditch the Disk” - Interview with Miguel Cabrer

Miguel Cabrer is a Digital Health Entrepreneur with a special interest on transforming healthcare through real patient engagement, with some initiatives for image exchange and patient portability, and AI & Chatbots to facilitate patient interaction in clinical processes. 

Miguel has been CIO of several public hospitals and health regions in Spain, global companies (BestDoctors) and founder of several initiatives (Medting). 

He was member of the HIMSS EMEA Governing Council (2006-2013).

Since September 2018, Miguel has been the CIO of TopDoctors leading the IT and Innovation strategy for the International expansion of the company worldwide.  Also, investor and Founder of a new initiative (Idonia.com) for imaging cloud exchange and delivery with some patient engagement tools.

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Tell us about your area of clinical expertise and your journey as a physician entrepreneur: 

I am not a physician but an IT Engineer with a passion for improving and automating healthcare through IT. I have accumulated more than 20 years working in healthcare in several experiences like digital hospitals as CIO and online services companies such as Medting, BestDoctors and now Idonia.

Why did you start Idonia?

I had a really good experience spending 4 years at BestDoctors leading the eHealth strategy based on the clinical collaboration platform around clinical cases and medical images built on Medting, the platform that BestDoctors acquired to use in 2012. After 4 years of intense work, BestDoctors was also acquired by TelaDoc.

After that, my team and I with a great experience on medical imaging decided to brainstorm about what to do next. New trend was in the AI world but we realized that healthcare still has several processes relying on legacy technology. One example is the CD, still being intensively used for medical image delivery between health institutions, professionals and patients. New computers don’t even come with a CD Reader, so …. we decided to focus our efforts on that problem and try to change this process by simplifying access to medical reports and images using secure cloud. 

Moreover, we wanted to have a special focus on patient experience and non-digital patients, so the challenge was to build a medical image delivery service that was simple to use and connect. Idonia came as a very interesting product combining DICOM connectivity, image processing, web delivery, zero footprint mobile-friendly image viewer, security, privacy, and cloud computing.  

Professionals can explore for free at http://idonia.com. If you provide the promotional code #radrounds when registering, we will apply special benefits to the radiology network. 

Greatest benefit to healthcare providers and the healthcare system?

The majority of patients would like to receive copies of their reports and most of them (85%) would also prefer to view their images 

Benefits are clearly seen when eliminating the CD. According to Becker’s Hospital Review, hospitals are currently spending between $8 and $15 per CD. In some cases, health systems spend as much as $100,000 per year in courier costs alone just to transport CDs from hospital to hospital.

By using Idonia, one medical center can definitely eliminate the use of CD/DVD. Some solutions (PACS remote access) offer medical images online but the complexity to connect does not allow non-digital patients to be included. Idonia Magic Link functionality allows it to also deliver in a simple way to all patients (included non digital) and totally avoid the use of CDs.

Savings are clear in CD, maintenance and operational time and patient satisfaction also increases since the simplicity allows a patient to share and access medical images without technical barriers.

A deeper analysis can be found in the article Medical Image Exchange in the Cloud: A More Efficient Way 

What are challenges to interoperability as you see it?

Interoperability is not an issue in medical imaging today. DICOM is really helping on that and is a robust interoperability standard. The main challenge is to provide fast performance to medical imaging since PACS does not traditionally perform well. Our value and IP is that we know how to convert DICOM, which is not very optimal for web access, to cloud imaging which allows fast access, by keeping the source DICOM image in case diagnosis is needed, but with quick access to medical images through the web. 

Since cloud services can provide secure mechanisms for GDPR and HIPAA compliance, they are becoming a proper solution for medical image exchange and delivery. Specialized cloud medical image exchange platforms will be consolidating overall if they also reduce costs and allow easier delivery to patients of their medical studies. We just need to be sure the service allows the coverage of all exchange workflows (including non-digital-expert patients) and so the CD is no longer needed.

What do you do outside of clinical work and Idonia that you would like to share?  

I am always thinking of ways to improve how healthcare is delivered. If we think in some other sectors and how some traditional businesses have been transformed through technology, I get very excited about ideas. Recently, I participated in a chatbot task engine to build a care coordination solution for chronic patients, applying innovation in companies willing to improve the health delivery service.

I also like to write articles, read, learn, and share knowledge. Personally I enjoy connecting with the sea and all the adventures the Mediterranean sea can bring.

Contact info: riya10.in@gmail.com