Officials with the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant said healthcare artificial intelligence was a key piece of the blockbuster acquisition. 

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has become the first of eight NHS trusts in the UK to deploy the imaging IT solution.

In a talk during RSNA's annual meeting, one expert urged the specialty to forge its own path, before it's forced to follow others.

Healthcare systems can use the tool to merge clinical health information with imaging files and perform tasks that are difficult and expensive to complete with current approaches.

The move builds upon the Montreal tech company’s cloud-based imaging strategy and allows Intelerad to provide a flexible approach to managed services and a hybrid cloud solution to providers.

It’s cloud software turns preoperative medical images into a 3D “digital twin” of the patient’s heart enabling providers to plan procedures and navigate instruments during surgery.

The specialty needs to contribute more to the electronic health record to keep pace with data-driven care delivery, one informatics expert said during SIIM's virtual meeting.

SIIM said the decision was influenced by both continued travel restrictions among its members and a desire to quell the spread of COVID-19.