Accessing medical image file with co-allocation HDFS in cloud

• The motivation of this paper is to attempt to resolve the problems of storing and sharing electronic medical records and medical images between different hospitals.
• Specifically, this study develops a Medical Image File Accessing System (MIFAS) based on HDFS of Hadoop in cloud.
• The proposed system can improve medical imaging storage, transmission stability, and reliability while providing an easy-to-operate management interface.
• This paper focuses on the cloud storage virtualization technology to achieve high-availability services.
• The experimental results show that the high reliability data storage clustering and fault tolerance capabilities can be achieved.

Patient privacy has recently become the most important issue in the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States and Europe. However, inter-hospital medical information is currently shared using paper-based operations, and this is an important research issue for the complete and immediate exchange of electronic medical records to avoid duplicate prescriptions or procedures. An electronic medical record (EMR) is a computerized medical record created by a care-giving organization, such as a hospital and doctor’s surgery. Using electronic medical records can improve patient’s privacy and health care efficiency. Although there are many advantages to electronic medical records, the problem of exchanging and sharing medical images remains to be solved. The motivation of this paper is to attempt to resolve the problems of storing and sharing electronic medical records and medical images between different hospitals. Cloud Computing is enabled by the existing parallel and distributed technology, which provides computing, storage and software services to users. Specifically, this study develops a Medical Image File Accessing System (MIFAS) based on HDFS of Hadoop in cloud. The proposed system can improve medical imaging storage, transmission stability, and reliability while providing an easy-to-operate management interface. This paper focuses on the cloud storage virtualization technology to achieve high-availability services. We have designed and implemented a medical imaging system with a distributed file system. The experimental results show that the high reliability data storage clustering and fault tolerance capabilities can be achieved.