Dive Brief:
- The FDA approved a cloud-based sharing solution developed by Box, called Box for Healthcare, that enables hospitals to communicate with patients via mobile devices, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reports.
- The new solution includes a viewer for the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) image format, a tightly regulated standard for transferring medical images.
- Since the FDA classified the solution as a competitive level II product, it took the company three years to develop it in collaboration with hospitals like MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Dive Insight:
The company acquired MedXT in 2014 for their X-ray viewing technology which allows the instant sharing of images across internal departments and external parties.
Box is focusing on applying its strengths in HIPAA compliance and data transfer and mobility, and using it in a way that's easy to implement, Director of Product Management at Box for Industries Brandon Savage told the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
The company website lists three main features of the solution: provides doctors, researchers and administrators with quick, secure, HIPPA-compliant access on any device; share, track and comment on documents contain protected health information (PHI) across internal departments and external parties; collaborate across departments to enhance the speed of information sharing.
Box's stock has been sliding since it went public in January 2015. However, its recent FDA-approved solution could change that. Financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year are expected to be reported on March 9.
The company estimates that the healthcare industry will spend $5.4 billion on cloud computing by 2017.