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Published: Monday, 23 March 2015 14:00

Not a day goes by without the NHS being in the news from one 'crisis' to the next. Back in 2013, Jeremy Hunt stated that the NHS would be paperless by 2018 including the digitisation of x-rays so how exactly will that help?

X-Ray Scanning

X-Ray scanning is a fairly recent innovation so not a lot of people are aware of the benefits it can bring but let's just think about it for a moment. Society has been moving towards total digitisation for a long time now so it just makes sense to move medical processes in that direction too. The worst thing that could happen is for the NHS to be left in the stone age in terms of treating patients from this digital society especially when a simple change like scanning x-rays can bring all of these benefits and more...

Productivity

X-ray scanning brings with it the ability to search and retrieve x-rays instantly in a digital system rather than wasting time looking for the physical version. This feature alone can transform radiology departments and even the working days of individual doctors and nurses who can get their tasks completed quicker. So, digital x-rays can speed up processes without risking the lives of patients which leads me onto the next benefit.

Patient Waiting Times

Last year, patient waiting times on the NHS were described as 'a national disgrace' and since then, there has been a great deal of focus on how things can be improved. With digital x-rays, processes can be completed quicker meaning more patients can be seen in a shorter space of time so patients waiting for x-ray diagnosis will have shorter waiting times.

Off-Site Diagnosis

The flexibility of digital x-rays means that when a second opinion or diagnosis is needed from a specialist who is off-site, the digital file can be sent to them instantly. They won't need to waste time and money traveling to a specific location when the file can be accessed from any device. This ability for a quick diagnosis could also potentially save lives.

Space

Aside from the boosts to efficiency and productivity, having x-rays scanned and converted to digital files will also help the NHS to free up some valuable and much needed space. Once the digital files have been created and backed up, there will no longer be a need to store the hundreds upon thousands of x-rays in patient records, on-site. This space can be better utilised in hospitals, GP surgeries and private healthcare organisations.

Image Quality

During the digitisation process, images can be scanned at very high resolution giving the image greater quality than the hard copy would have offered originally. This could enable healthcare professionals to notice and diagnose elements they would have missed on the original x-ray.

X-Ray Scanning Services

We can scan medical x-rays, dental x-rays, veterinary x-rays and MRI x-rays for healthcare organisations looking to reap the excellent benefits mentioned above. We have already completed a number of successful projects and we are always looking for more organisations we can help. X-rays ranging from 14"x17" right down to 44mm can be scanned and converted to any format you need including PDF, DICOM and JPG. We can even provide you with our specially designed image retrieval software, Halogen, if you don't already have a bulk document management system in place. So, if this sounds like the perfect solution for you, give us a call so we can discuss your requirements and provide you with a free, no obligation quote for your scanning project.

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Published: Thursday, 19 March 2015 14:00

Digitising old photos, slides and negatives can enable you to show them to people, family and friends all over the world and it doesn't have to be as hard work as you think.

Scanning Photos

The first ever scanner was built in 1957 believe it or not but the process of scanning photos has only become commonplace in the past 20-30 years as digital cameras have replaced analogue versions. People scan their photos for a wide range of reasons including to preserve them and to organise them in a better way. Digitising images from photos, slides and negatives lets you store them in a safe way that is also cost effective and space saving. As well as the safe and secure benefit of scanned photos, a large number of people are now digitising their photos to share them with family, friends and, well, anyone really.

How People Are Sharing Their Photos

In this increasingly digital society, there are now a huge range of ways people can share their digital images;

Email

Arguably one of the first ways digital images were sent, email has become one of the primary methods of communication for people separated from friends or family.

Social Media

The world of social media is now huge with the big players like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest attracting millions of visitors daily. A lot of us enjoy putting photos on our social media profiles of the memories we're making but also of past memories with #TBT (Throw Back Thursday) being an incredibly popular hashtag on a number of these site. Without the ability to scan photos, this trend would never exist.

Websites

A lot of people who use websites (and blogs) to promote personal brands and projects benefit from the ability to have digitised photos available for uploading. One of the biggest websites to benefit though is ancestry.com which relies on it's users to upload photos from family archives of relatives and ancestors to build family trees and networks.

CDs & DVDs

CDs & DVDs have become the photo albums of the digital world. Instead of boxes of albums gathering dust and taking up space in the attic, people can now store thousands of photos in a small pile of CDs.

Photo, Slide and Negative Scanning

Our services at Pearl Scan are there to help digitise archives of old photos, negatives and slides to enable people to share them in the ways mentioned above. Each photo, negative and slide scanning project is tailored to suit the needs of the different clients we help. We have seen our clients enjoy a wide range of benefits from having the images digitised and sometimes enhanced for better quality. For more information about how we scan slides, negatives and photographs at our secure scanning bureau, give us a call and request your free quote.