The healthcare industry is going through tremendous change due to the automation of patient care, causing huge impacts on IT organizations. The entire system managing the interaction between healthcare professionals and patients is dramatically evolving, and will completely impact the way a hospital does business.Instead of tracking patients with a file folder and a clip board, many hospitals and clinics are being required to adopt the use of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). A fully implemented EMR system allows electronic storage, retrieval, and modification of patient information, allowing departments within the health organization to collaborate when providing care. In hospitals and clinics, these federally backed (in the United States and Canada) EMR systems will replace hundreds of different applications used by physicians, radiology personnel, and even hospital administration.There is tremendous pressure on IT departments to implement and support EMRsystems, allowing hospitals and clinics to take advantage of incentive programs and stimulus money.Radiology departments are doing away with old film-based equipment and are now using Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) to electronically store, display, and transfer large digital images to any department or organization that may need them. Clinics are trending toward software as a service (SaaS) and remote hosting services to support these patient systems, rather than suffering the expense of bringing them in-house.Mobility continues to trend upward in healthcare, as doctors make use of tablet devices at the bedside to access Computerized Physician Order Entry systems (CPOE). These orders are communicated over thenetwork to the medical staff in other departments, such as radiology, giving them treatment instructions on a specific patient. After these large images are captured, they are stored and made available for analysis by the physician, even at the bedside.