By Prasanth Prasanna, MD
Medicine faces many difficulties as interest in sustainability increases, as pointed out by Diana Bradley, staff writer for DOTmed news. Radiology IT is no stranger to many of these challenges. We have been saddled with legacy hardware and software, while newer material is being released all the time, needing integration. As Ms. Bradley points out, while we may not have to the power to change much of the physical plant of our work environment, we do have the ability to make small choices which add up to immense change. The healthcare industry uses 2 billion dollars a year on electricity. Keeping HVAC and plumbing fixtures up to date and maintained can help reduced water and energy expenditures. Clean, drinking water will become more and more valuable as time progresses. She also points out many other areas for improvement, including waste reduction, equipment recycling/refurbishing, and use of alternative energy sources.
A recent New York Times article also looks at the energy wasted at many of the nation’s data centers. In the article they estimate worldwide, data centers use 30 billion watts of electricity. Data centers in the US account for a quarter to a third of this amount, of which around 90% is wasted as servers are set to run full tilt, 24/7. Some companies, such as Google, have been taking strides to help fight this issue. But what does this mean for Radiology IT? We need to look hard at what we are doing as well. Are our servers running full tilt in the middle of the night, when the load is likely to be less? Can we throttle back at these times? Are there off line or near line data solutions that can help alleviate the need for all data to be on line? Can pre-fetching algorithms be enhanced to facilitate putting data near line, helping reduce the online load? Have we optimized coolant systems for our server rooms? As cloud storage becomes a viable solution, we also need to ask what steps vendors are taking for sustainability. Are there ways to recycle or repurpose old hardware?
If these or other sustainability issue interest you, please contact Anna Marie Mason, at SIIM, to join our focus group.