Introduction to Vendor Neutral Archive

VNA technology is increasingly being used to form part of the long term storage strategy within NHS Trusts. Separating the storage service from the clinical applications delivers economic and operational benefits. Adopting a more IT centric approach to storage reduces the overall storage management of multiple clinical storage systems. Future migration when replacing clinical systems is avoided and cross enterprise sharing with the InStore VNA provides extra benefits. A single storage service also reduces the number of interfaces for clinical image data when linking to a Trust EPR.

InStore VNA devices are being deployed in advance of the expiry of the LSP contracts in 2013 to migrate data onto a local independent archive. Using the DICOM functionality available within the existing LSP PACS, images held locally and on the cluster data store can be retrieved non-invasively and in a timely manner. Connecting for Health are working with Insignia to generate migration metrics and provide support to Trusts who choose to migrate data before the end of the LSP contracts.