A national image-sharing platform NHS organizations, patients, and others use to access diagnostic scans securely and tests has seen record usage nationwide.
The image exchange portal, widely known in the NHS as the IEP, is now being used to share as many as 500 images each second, including X–rays, CT, MRI, ultrasound scans, and more.
The system was first introduced into the NHS in 2009 to allow trusts to share images with each other. Greater reliance on the independent sector to help tackle diagnostic backlogs and an increase in patients requesting access to their own images have contributed to a growth in the portal, as more images move beyond organizational boundaries.
Rising volumes of scans and tests for patients have also fuelled growth in the use of the IEP.
Deployed in every acute hospital trust in England, the portal has been used by a growing number of organizations beyond NHS trusts, including stroke networks, organizations delivering new insights into cancer, large private healthcare groups, teleradiology reporting providers, and innovative companies helping to create 3D models for pre-surgery planning.
More than 450,000 individuals currently use the IEP. In 2023, the portal transmitted close to 12 million patient imaging studies, compared to approximately 2.8 million studies in 2012.
Chris Scarisbrick, deputy managing director for Sectra, the company that hosts the IEP, said: “The image exchange portal remains globally unique and is envied as a national tool for sharing diagnostic images for patients.
“Developed for the NHS initially to share radiology imaging between individual hospitals, the role of IEP has changed in line with the needs of a health service now dealing with greater diagnostic demands than ever before.
“As hospitals work hard to tackle a substantial diagnostic backlog, the portal has become an important means to share diagnostic imaging with the independent sector, to help to ensure timely diagnosis for patients. And as increasingly ‘ologies’ become digital, it supports national access to more than just radiology images.”
Steven Frisby, IEP national account manager at Sectra, added: “Use of the image exchange portal continues to expand in ways that couldn’t have been envisioned 15 years ago when it was first introduced into the NHS.
“Patients are increasingly demanding access to their imaging. As medical frontiers expand and technological capabilities in healthcare continue to evolve, the ability to access imaging through a secure platform and in ways that protect patient data is ever more critical.
“Now, as the NHS seeks new ways to share images nationally, we welcome conversations on how this national platform can continue to evolve as we ensure it receives the investment needed to meet healthcare needs into the future.”
