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February is Cholangiocarcinoma Awareness Month, a time to highlight the rare liver disease that affects 1-2 people in 100,000 per year. We are highly aware of cholangiocarcinoma due to our friend and investor Mike Shane who passed away last year after a strong fight against this disease. In his memory, we established the Mike Shane Memorial Fund to help patients who have this diagnosis overcome financial barriers to getting a needed remote second opinion. Part of this effort involves making it as easy as possible for patients to get their medical information, including medical images, to the physician to review for a second opinion.

Many physicians and healthcare providers don’t charge their patients for a copy of their medical images because they fear their patients’ reaction. Ironically, providing “free” CDs to their patients is actually causing more harm than good. Patients we’ve spoken with would prefer paying a small fee for online access, which is actually valuable to them, rather than receiving the burden accompanied by that free CD. Take this story for example…

Hospitals waste thousands of dollars on inefficient patient imaging delivery by CDs. Why does this method prevail when hospitals could easily adopt a more efficient, less expensive, and even free, format that would better serve their patients?

Researchers at Yale University School of Medicine were left with the same question after evaluating patient imaging delivery in hospitals across the United States.

As a responsible physician, you may worry about the potential effects of giving your patients electronic access to their medical images. However, many of these fears aren’t justified by the facts. If you’re worried about the dangers of giving your patients access to their medical images, the following may help to put your mind at ease.

Let’s take a look at the risks and benefits of sharing medical images with patients: