SMN Router, secured medical image exchange between institutions

SMN Router is a tool used to facilitate medical cooperation between health professionals from various institutions who need to share images while still respecting the medical field's code of ethics. SMN Router provides an efficient solution to the needs and constraints of medical image exchange: tele-expertise and telediagnosis. Using SMN Router institutions can organize and manage the secured exchange of medical images and their clinical context between health professionals at the local, regional or national level.

Advantages

Can be used via existing DICOM imaging equipment and workstations equipped with a web browser.

Exchange formalization defined by technical protocols and cooperation conventions between professionals and institutions.

Association of images and their clinical context in globally accessible “teleimaging files" (creation, sending, consultation, response, archiving...)

Supports DICOM images (grayscale or color, still or multiframe) and non-images (reports, selections of key images, radiotherapy objects….).  

Preservation of the integrity of exchanged images, to enable their use for primary diagnosis or post-treatment purposes.

Respects the confidentiality of exchanged medical data. 

Easy to use, reducing the need to train health professionals. 

Can be used simultaneously by multiple health professionals and for various telemedicine practices. 

Automation of exchanges for established teleimaging contexts.

Traceability of exchanges and production states.

Easily installed in the network infrastructure and institutional security.

Easily integrated into the institutions medical imaging network.  

Key Characteristics

Installation of an SMN Router in each institution (no dedicated stations or specific applications to install on workstations).

Completion of cross-institutional exchanges via existing DICOM equipment (modalities, PACS stations and servers, post-treatment stations…) and posts equipped with a web browser.

Management of "teleimaging file” models to formalize and automate various institutional teleimaging practices (clinical presentation, advice request, response….).

Rapid visualization of images with a web browser (scroll, windowing with the mouse, predefined windowing, zoom…).

Follow the exchange in real time (notifications, alerts, progress…) and delayed time (history, journal, reports…). 

Secured exchanges via internet with an SSL VPN technology using X509 v3 certificates that can be provided by the GIP-CPS.

Automatic routing of images internally and between sending and receiving institutions.

Automatic resumption of data transfers in the event of temporary network failure.

Implementation of DICOM 3.0 services: Store SCP and SCU, Query and Retrieve SCP and SCU, Storage Commitment SCP, Verification SCP and SCU.

Support for all DICOM object types: still images (CT, MR……) or multiframe (US, XA, MPEG……), with or without compression, and non images (SR, KO, PDF, PR, RT……). 

Respects IHE recommendations (HIPAA traceability, XDS / DXS-1 meta data…).

Compatible with SSO solutions to authenticate health professionals (CPS).