New St. Joseph’s partnership empowers patients

To provide patients with easy access to and control over their medical imaging, St. Joseph’s Medical Imaging Centre is partnering with PocketHealth, a service that allows patients to access their images online and share them with others, in full diagnostic quality.

Instead of returning to the hospital for a CD every time they want their medical images to share or for their personal records, patients can enrol at www.pockethealth/STJOSEPHS for immediate access to their imaging files (reports are not included.) Through PocketHealth, patients can provide others, such as physicians in the community, with access to their images through fax, a secure email, or a link.  

Patients do not need to register for St. Joseph's or London Health Sciences Centre physicians to be able to access their medical images.

How it works

  • Patients who choose to enrol with PocketHealth will have their images stored permanently and readily accessible at any time, from any device. There is a $5.00+HST fee paid to PocketHealth to have all their images at St. Joseph’s stored with PocketHealth, a well as any additional exams over the subsequent two weeks after enrolling.
  • Patients are notified of new images, which can be added to their account. After the initial two- week period, there is a $5.00 + HST fee to store new images.
  • Strong privacy and encryption protocols keep the medical information secure.

Currently, patients must come to St. Joseph’s to order a copy of their images on CD, pay $10 per CD, and wait 48 hours to receive it, explains  Howard Hansford, Site Manager, Medical Imaging Centre. This has been a time-consuming process for both patients and hospital staff.

Automating, securing, and modernizing the imaging process

“This is an exciting partnership that will enhance the patient experience, empower patients by providing them with easy access to and control over their medical imaging, improve transitions in care, and enable St. Joseph’s to more fully automate, secure and modernize the imaging release process,” he says.

More than 500 hospitals, clinics and imaging facilities across North America – including 340 in Ontario –partner with Toronto-based PocketHealth to provide this service to their patients. PocketHealth launched at St. Joseph’s in early June.  Posters and patient materials are available within the Medical Imaging Centre.

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