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The recent boom in the global healthcare industry has ramped up demand not only for healthcare professionals but also for related IT equipment. Government regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are gradually forcing healthcare providers to upgrade legacy information systems with the latest in laboratory information management, picture archiving and communication, as well as medical records systems.

Laboratory information management system (LIMS)

According to market research firm Frost & Sullivan, regulatory compliance as well as the standardization of business practices and have catapulted the LIMS market into the growth stage, with market revenues likely to increase from US$209 million in 2003 to US$328 million in 2009. The development of LIMS has been influenced by the trend toward the maintenance of electronic records in lieu of paper-based documents. LIMS assists lab workers in handling structured data records such as samples, tests performed, and their results.

Picture archiving and communication system (PACS)

PACS is an electronics system that uses an image server to exchange X-rays, CT scans and other medical images over a network. Due to its legal mandate under the provisions of the HIPAA, market research firm Frost & Sullivan projects that 65.2 percent of all hospitals and 12.3 percent of U.S imaging centers will install PACS by 2007. This is not surprising considering that PACS offers several benefits. The film-less system speeds up the turnaround time required for delivering images/x-rays to the attending physicians, since they will no longer need to wait for film images to be processed and delivered before they are analyzed. As a result, doctors will be able to make quick decisions in emergency or life-threatening medical cases.

LIMS and PACS both require a high level of performance, availability and reliability, as immediate access to patient information is critical in emergency scenarios.

The Solid State Disk Advantage

So what do solid state flash disks offer for these applications?

Medical imaging systems are performance-hungry applications that require real-time performance and higher resolutions while medical information systems need reliable components to minimize downtime. All of these requirements can be easily met by utilizing flash-based solid state disk for storage or as a cache solution. High transfer rates allow immediate delivery of real time information, while the ruggedized packaging of certain solid state disk models, such as BiTMICRO's E-Disk SSD, immunizes the storage device from hazardous ESD and EMI. Moreover, the VME and cPCI architectures are most commonly used in medical imaging systems, and E-Disk solid state disks are tailor fit for any VME, cPCI, PMC storage module.

Solid state flash disks are capable of much higher transfer rates and IOPS relative to other storage mediums such as magnetic disk drives. Flash-based solid state disks inherently consume less power and generate a smaller amount of heat due to the absence of spindle motors. ESD and EMI, both generated and received, will be minimized with flash drive implementation. On top of that, the non-volatile nature of flash memory makes it resistant to shock and vibration, a useful feature in rugged mobile environments.

BiTMICRO's E-Disk solid state flash disk has a unique feature that sets it apart from its DRAM-SSD and HDD counterparts. E-Disk's patented PowerGuard^® provides temporary power in the event of a power loss, allowing the disk to flush all the content in the cache into the flash memory, ensuring data reliability and availability in mobile medical systems.

It is also noteworthy to mention BiTMICRO's extended warranty support programs in support for non-obsolescence and quality control of computerized medical equipment. Extended warranty ensures timely and original or functionally equivalent replacements for BiTMICRO products that need repair or attention, up to a period covering 10 years after original purchase.

Price Trend

Now that we've established the technical viability of solid state flash disks in medical systems, let's examine the practicality of flash disk deployment in enterprise storage. Though there still is a price premium for solid state disks over rotational drives, the gap between HDD and solid state flash disk quotes is seen to narrow significantly-with a difference of only about $0.05 per MByte in 2007-despite the huge performance advantages of solid state disks (at 100x-150x over magnetic drives in terms of sustained transfers and IOPS).

Web-Feet Research also projects a major decline in the solid state flash disk/HDD cost ratio by approximately four times, from 433:1 ($0.078 vs. $0.0018 per MByte) in 2003 to 107:1 ($0.096 vs. $0.0009 per MByte) in 2006. Solid state flash disks will also maintain its cost-per-MByte advantage over DRAM-based SSDs.

One thing the solid state disk industry has benefited from is the continued decline in flash memory prices. High demand for portable electronic devices such as MMS-capable phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players has driven semiconductor manufacturers to boost flash memory density and output. Market research firm Web-Feet Research predicts that the price per MByte of solid state flash disk will fall by an average of 80.86 percent annually within a 5-year period starting 2004.

Figure 1: Disk drive comparison, $ / MB

Conclusion

The digitization of diagnostics and records management procedures in the medical industry has facilitated the evaluation, sharing, and archiving of patient images and information. However, these data intensive applications require storage components that can operate in an environment where IT system downtime can be fatal. Solid state flash disk is the ideal solution for medical systems, providing fast throughput and scalability at a price that belies its wide performance lead over magnetic disk drives.

About the Author

Jun Alejo is a Marketing Communications Specialist for BiTMICRO Networks, Inc. Prior to joining BiTMICRO, he was News Editor for Electronic Engineering Times-Asia and Global Sources Electronic Components. You may contact him at 1 (510) 743-3193 or send an email at jun.alejo@bitmicro.com.

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