The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the US is looking commission a number of data center contractors across the country that will allow it to integrate operations as part of a virtual data center to create a unified resource for its growing data center needs.

It said is looking for flexible contracts with operators that can ensure visibility and interoperation with other colocation and hosting providers, with contracts that do not set out quantity or task orders to allow for the organization’s future growth.

The CMS moved from a geographically based structure to one covering the different consortia, including Medicare and Medicaid, in 2007, enhancing the need for a more centralized IT resource.

AT&T and Accenture put medical images in the Cloud

AT&T is working with Accenture to offer a cloud computing medical imaging service.

Accenture Medical Imaging Solution is offered only in the US, where it will be used for document collaboration.

The service is based on AT&T’s imaging and information management and cloud technology and uses Accenture’s systems integration tools.

Dell provides products for Merge Healthcare cloud

Dell has been selected to provide cloud computing, storage and enterprise hardware products for Merge Healthcare, a company that provides imaging solutions for radiology, cardiology, orthopaedics and clinical trials.

Dell said managing the growing amount of medical images used in healthcare is one of the biggest challenges for the industry today.

Its new contract is for web-enabled visualization using Dell’s UCA (Unified Clinical Archive) solution, designed in partnership with Novarad, for next-generation cloud-enabled medical imaging.