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Unomed

Send DICOM

Move imaging, without CDs or portals.

A study takes minutes to acquire and then days to arrive. Unomed has four routes from the source to the recipient. Which one fits is decided by who is on the other side, not by the technology.

Book a demo See the four routes
  • No physical media
  • Recipients need no app
  • Data in Switzerland
  • Referrer, colleague, patient Messenger Your team inbox
  • You, to someone without Unomed Guest link The recipient's browser
  • Your modalities, your PACS Cloud Connector Your Unomed archive
  • Institute, hospital, partner Radiology Bridge Your PACS inbox
Three routes lead in, one leads out. Whatever comes in ends up in the same place, whichever of the three carried it.

Partners

The problem

Acquired in minutes, delivered in days.

What sits between the scan and the report is rarely medicine. It is the delivery route, and each of the usual four shares one property: it ends on somebody's desk.

  • CD and USB stick

    Burned, put in an envelope, posted. At the far end it waits for someone to read it in, look up the patient and match the study by hand.

    Days in transit, then manual work

  • Email

    Fine for a report, not for a series of several hundred images. And an ordinary email is open in transit.

    Too small, and not built for patient data

  • The institute's portal

    Every provider has one, every one wants its own account, and the credentials end up on a note beside the screen. Four partners mean four portals.

    One account per partner

  • File-sharing services

    Fast and large enough. But the data then sits on a server nobody in the practice can name, and usually not in Switzerland.

    Data out of house

All four work. None of them puts the study where you will look for it again the next day.

The routes

Four routes, and you choose by the other side.

Two of them a person sends off when the need arises. Two run between systems, set up once and used for every study after that. All four carry the complete study, not an exported image.

  1. Messenger

    By hand

    The study attached to the conversation.

    Study, report and the question about them travel in the same encrypted thread. The recipient opens the study in the browser viewer instead of downloading it, and answers in the same place.

    For
    Referrers, colleagues, partner practices and institutes that use Unomed
    Requires
    Unomed Messenger on both sides. The Basic entry package costs nothing.
    1. Attach the study to the conversation, from the archive or from your computer.
    2. The recipient opens it in the browser, with nothing to install.
    3. Question, answer and study stay together and stay findable.

    See Unomed Messenger

  2. Cloud Connector

    Set up once

    Your own devices into your own archive.

    The Cloud Connector is a small service inside your practice network. It connects the equipment on your premises to your Unomed: X-ray, ultrasound, MRI, a CBCT, and equally a PACS you run on your own premises.

    For
    Practices, clinics and institutes that run their own modalities or their own PACS
    Requires
    A one-off installation in the practice network, with us or with your IT partner. Included from PACS Basic.
    1. Install the connector in the practice network, whatever the vendor.
    2. Enter Unomed as a DICOM destination on the device, like a second printer.
    3. Acquisitions then sit in your archive and in the patient record.

    See Cloud PACS

  3. Radiology Bridge

    Set up once

    Another provider imaging for you.

    The Bridge connects an institute, a hospital or a partner practice to Unomed. That provider keeps its PACS or RIS, whatever the vendor, and the studies for your patients land with you instead of on a CD.

    For
    External institutes, hospitals and partners whose acquisitions should reach you. It is usually paid for by the sending provider.
    Requires
    An existing PACS or RIS at the sending provider. No system change there.
    1. The sending provider is connected once, and its system stays.
    2. Autorouting decides which studies go to which ordering practice.
    3. The study appears in your PACS inbox, with a suggested match.

    See Radiology Bridge

Cloud Connector and Radiology Bridge are regularly mixed up. The dividing line is simple: the Connector links your own sources to your Unomed, the Bridge connects another provider so that its acquisitions reach you.

Which route

Six cases from an ordinary week.

Most practices end up using two routes: one for sending by hand, one for everything that arrives regularly.

Six common starting points and the route that fits
Your situation The route Why
A referrer asks quickly for the MR images. Messenger Question and study stay in one thread instead of splitting across two channels.
A patient wants her images for a second opinion. Guest link She needs no account, and neither does the practice she goes to.
Your X-ray is in the building and the images belong in the record. Cloud Connector Set up once on the device, then no export and no import.
You run your own PACS and intend to keep it. Cloud Connector The archive on your premises stays and becomes a source instead of a dead end.
An institute images for you and still sends CDs. Radiology Bridge The institute keeps its system, and the physical media disappear on both sides.
You are the institute and supply several practices. Radiology Bridge One connection, and autorouting decides which study goes to which ordering practice.

Arriving

Sending is only half the distance.

A route that drops images into a folder someone empties by hand has moved the work, not removed it. That is why none of the four routes ends in a folder.

How the archive works

  1. Arrival

    The study appears in the PACS inbox as soon as it is there, visible to everyone with the right permissions and not only to the person at the front desk.

  2. Matching

    Unomed suggests the matching patient, including across name variants and duplicates. You confirm with one click, or change the match.

  3. Filing

    After that the study sits in the patient record and in the archive, opened in the browser viewer and without a second program.

  • Upload form

    A form you send out. Anyone without a connection uploads their study through it, and it arrives in the same inbox.

  • Manual upload

    A CD or a folder of DICOM files goes into the archive straight from the browser. Included in every package.

Security

Patient data in transit, and still accounted for.

Each of the four routes replaces one on which data left the building without anyone being able to say afterwards where it went. That is the real gain, not the speed.

  • Encrypted and in Switzerland

    Transfers are encrypted and the data sits in certified Swiss data centres.

  • FADP and GDPR

    Processing follows the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection and the GDPR.

  • Permissions per person

    Who may view, share or download a study follows their role and permissions.

  • Traceable

    You can see what arrived, who matched it and where it was passed on.

What it costs

Three prices, depending on the route you need.

Sending by hand belongs to Unomed Messenger, the two configured routes belong to the Radiology line. If all you want is to send and receive, you start on the free package.

  • Messenger and guest link

    Free

    Part of Unomed Messenger. The entry package is free for good.

    Connect pricing

  • Cloud Connector

    from CHF 99 per month

    Part of Unomed Cloud PACS, included with one connector from the Basic package.

    Cloud PACS pricing

  • Radiology Bridge

    CHF 1 per study

    For the sending provider, either per study or as a yearly flat rate.

    Radiology Bridge pricing

Receiving costs the recipient nothing extra: a study that comes in over the Bridge is paid for by the sending provider.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between the Cloud Connector and the Radiology Bridge?

The direction and the building. The Cloud Connector links your own sources to your own Unomed: modalities in the practice network, or a PACS on your premises. The Radiology Bridge connects another provider, an institute, a hospital or a partner practice, so that its acquisitions for your patients reach you. Anyone running both uses both side by side.

Does the recipient need a Unomed account?

For the messenger yes, for the guest link no. The guest link opens the study in the browser, with no account, no app and nothing to install. That is the route for referrers without Unomed, for second opinions and for patients.

Can we keep our existing PACS?

Yes. If it stands in your building, the Cloud Connector turns it into a source for your Unomed archive. If it stands at a partner who images for you, the Radiology Bridge connects it. Either way the system stays where it is, and the vendor makes no difference.

How large can a study be?

What travels is the complete examination with all its series, not an exported single image. Where an email attachment stops after a few megabytes, a full series is the ordinary case here. If you work with unusually large datasets, thin-slice CT running to several thousand images for instance, we look at your case together before setting anything up.

What about the CDs that still arrive?

You read them into the archive from the browser, with no extra program. The study then sits in the same place as everything else and can be matched to the same patient. Physical media do not disappear overnight, but they no longer end up in a folder on a drive.

How long does setup take?

Messenger and guest link need no setup, an account is enough. The Cloud Connector is installed once in your network, with us or with your IT partner. The Radiology Bridge is set up once at the sending provider and then applies to every further study. How long that takes depends on the network and the devices; we look at it first and tell you before you order.

Can patients send images themselves?

Yes, through the guest link or through an upload form you send them. Both run in the browser, with no app and no account. What comes in appears in the same inbox as everything else and goes through the same check before it reaches the patient record.

Does this replace our practice management system?

No. Unomed sits alongside your existing system rather than in its place. The images appear where you already work, in the patient record, and your practice software stays what it is.

Next step

Tell us who sends you images.

Twenty minutes are enough to work out which of the four routes fits your setup and what it requires. After that you know whether it needs an installation or whether an account will do.

Book a demo See Cloud PACS