i3Archive Inc. of Berwyn, Penn. has launched the Patient Portability Program that provides access to the National Digital Mammography Archive (NDMA) to women directly.  
   
The program provides access to the NDMA's resources as well as to a private, HIPAA compliant web portal, where a patient can record and retrieve her own personal healthcare information, i3Archive said.  
   
The NDMA is a large repository and communications infrastructure for digital mammography images and data currently used by the healthcare industry for the daily management of breast-related studies. The Patient Portability Program currently focuses on breast health, but will soon expand to include cardiac disease, obesity, and other areas of health concerns, i3Archive said.
   
Moreover, i3Archive said the NDMA was recently recognized through a grant award from the National Cancer Institute as possessing the characteristics desired for a national healthcare medical communications infrastructure.  
   
While studies demonstrate that the centralization of medical data reduces the occurrences of medical errors, i3Archive said it designed a format for organized, standardized medical information that can be shared by patient-to-physician-to-researchers in order to increase the quality of healthcare delivery.     
   
"Using IBM grid technology, the NDMA allows for quick retrieval of mammography images from a central archive," said Mike Svinte, VP, Information Based Medicine EBO, IBM. "The ability to harness that information for enhanced diagnosis and treatment brings the promise of information based medicine to life."
   
For more information, visit http://www.i3archive.com.