California Hospital Is First to Use Medical Image Disaster Recovery Service Developed by Harris Corporation and Siemens Healthcare

ATLANTA and LOS ANGELES, March 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- (HIMSS '10, Booth #3133) – A collaborative effort between Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS) and Siemens Healthcare now gives healthcare providers an affordable, outsourced solution for disaster recovery. The companies' new medical image disaster recovery service reduces the need for significant capital investment by healthcare providers.

Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), healthcare providers are required to ensure data security and disaster recovery of patient records.  For these providers, building the necessary local infrastructure to meet HIPAA requirements is resource-intensive, complex and expensive.  

Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center is the first healthcare facility to install the new outsourced disaster recovery service, which enables medical imaging data to be recovered quickly in the event of an on-site disaster. The medical center installed the disaster recovery solution in February. Located in southern California, the 453-bed acute care, not-for-profit teaching hospital serves patients in eastern Los Angeles and western San Bernardino counties.

"Secure back-up of our local Picture Archiving Communications Systems – or PACS – in a remote data center is an instrumental part of our business continuity provisions and a HIPAA enabler," said Kent Hoyos, CIO of Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. "We are excited to be the first customer to implement this solution."

Imaging systems — such as, but not limited to, computed tomography, magnetic resonance, angiography, ultrasound and radiography — send the digital imaging data to the local Picture Archiving Communications System's long-term archive.  For safe and duplicate storage, a copy of the imaging data is securely transmitted throughout the day to a Harris data center in Melbourne, Florida.  If a disaster or maintenance interrupts access to the local archive, the medical image service then provides the hospital with ready access to remotely stored images through a dedicated, secure wide area communications network.

"With this offering, there is no need for any upfront capital investment," said Jim Traficant, vice president of Harris Healthcare Solutions.  "First, because it's based mainly on the infrastructure and managed disaster recovery resources available from Harris.  And second, it also leverages the customer's existing PACS hardware and software.  Beyond cost-savings, the greatest benefit to the healthcare provider – and, ultimately, the patient – is the assurance of fast and secure recovery in the event data is lost in a natural or human-induced disaster."

Arthur Kaindl, CEO, Image and Knowledge Management, Siemens Healthcare, said: "The Pomona Valley launch of the Harris Corporation and Siemens Healthcare image disaster recovery service reinforces that healthcare providers are taking the appropriate precautions to protect their patients' vital healthcare information in the event of an emergency.  As more and more patient imaging data becomes digitized, we are proud to be partnering with Harris to deliver this sort of customer-focused recovery solution."

As a provider of innovative solutions for imaging IT, Siemens Healthcare's imaging workflow solutions assist healthcare providers in achieving greater efficiency and accuracy while creating opportunities for the provider to reduce costs.  Siemens IKM offerings encompass products and solutions for Radiology Information Systems, PACS and Cardiovascular PACS, as well as advanced imaging applications and Computer-Aided Detection.

Harris Healthcare Solutions provides enterprise intelligence solutions and services for government and commercial customers — including systems integration, intelligent infrastructure, advanced visualization and display, enterprise digital content management and IT solutions.  A leader in federal healthcare IT integration, Harris products, systems and services improve healthcare outcomes by assuring that critical medical and benefits information is delivered with security and privacy to the right person, on the right device, at the point of care.

About Siemens Healthcare Sector

The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 48,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. In fiscal year 2009 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 11.9 billion euros and profit of around 1.5 billion euros. For further information please visit: www.siemens.com/healthcare.

About Harris Corporation

Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets worldwide.  Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has approximately $5 billion of annual revenue and more than 15,000 employees — including nearly 7,000 engineers and scientists.  Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications® products, systems, and services.  Additional information about Harris Corporation is available at www.harris.com.

SOURCE Harris Corporation