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DICOM Grid Brings Together $7.5M For Medical Imaging Sharing

By Timothy Hay
November 5, 2010

Dicom Grid Inc. said it has closed a $7.5 million Series A round to solve the problem doctors face with sharing X-rays, scans and other medical images with one another.

The Phoenix-based company, which launched in 2005 and previously raised several million dollars from neurosurgeons and radiologists, said Canaan Partners led the round, joined by CHL Medical Partners and private investors.

The funding brings Stephen Bloch of Canaan, Myles Greenberg of CHL and Steven Yecies of Chronic Health Capital to the company’s board, said Chief Executive Mike Wall.

Wall said doctors are often stymied when it comes to sharing medical images because of strict medical-privacy laws and various technological hurdles, and sometimes must ask patients to bring along a CD full of images when visiting a new physician. While the system works sometimes, it slows down emergency care, Wall said.

“It’s 1985-style technology being used out there,” he said.

Dicom Grid has patented a cloud-based image-sharing system that separates sensitive patient information from images, encrypts both and sends them across the Internet separately so that no outside person could connect an image to a name, Wall said.

The technology is called “split-merge,” he said, as the image and accompanying information are merged back together when they reach their destination, he said.

Dicom Grid also aims to provide another service to doctors and hospitals: creating a global repository of images that can be archived, searched and accessed by doctors. Doctors and hospitals must have such a repository, in case of data loss during an emergency, Wall said.

The company has sold its technology to Catholic Healthcare West, an operator of 43 hospitals, and other health-care providers, the CEO said.

The funding will help the company continue to grow and should carry Dicom Grid to break-even, he said.

The company has 20 employees. Valuation wasn’t disclosed.

http://www.dicomgrid.com