Accessing and Viewing Images

Online access to imaging records through PocketHealth

medical imaging access on a cell phone and tablet screen
Patients and their families now have online access to their medical imaging records.

Patients and their families now have online access to their medical imaging records.

Instead of picking up at CD, an online service, PocketHealth, now offers North York General patients and their families access to their medical imaging records online.  

Follow these steps to enrol:

Sign up or Login to PocketHealth

If you are on your mobile phone, follow these steps to enrol:  

  1. Download the North York Navigator app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. 

  1. In the North York Navigator follow the link to Get Your Diagnostic Images through PocketHealth.  

  1. Continue with your Ontario trusted account to easily enrol using your unique patient digital identity. 

Once enrolled, you can view your entire available medical imaging history from NYGH, share imaging instantly with any physician or even create a USB/CD from home. For information regarding PocketHealth membership plans and fees please visit Patients | PocketHealth.

If you wish to pick up an Access Page which will provide your care provider with secure online access to your imaging records, please call our Film Library at 416-756-6169 and we will fax this access page directly to your physician.  

Patients can also easily access and share their imaging records online by visiting: https://www.pocket.health/en-US/ota/NYGH/login .  

If you are a physician, external hospital or imaging clinic wishing to learn more about the Access Page you received, you can download the following PDF:  

 

Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS)

PACS is an information technology system that replaces the traditional film and the film handling infrastructure both within a Medical Imaging department and throughout an entire hospital.

Imaging modalities (CT, MRI, general radiography, nuclear medicine, ultrasound, mammography) send image information digitally over the hospital network to a central system (database and image storage). From this central system, images are distributed instantly as required to computer workstations for primary diagnosis by radiologists and to clinical areas such as Emergency, Critical Care Unit, and the Operating Room. Radiologists can view images on PACS through remote access during a consultation with the ER after hours. PACS provides quicker results to the ER physician and also serves as a secure archive, eliminating the need for film storage.

Health Diagnostic Imaging Repository Services  (HDIRS)

North York General Hospital  (NYGH) is now sending diagnostic images, with the exception of nuclear medicine cardiology images, to HDIRS (Health Diagnostic Imaging Repository Services). This is an imaging data centre where NYGH is one of  36 member hospitals of the corporation. When fully operational, the data centre will allow radiologists and other health care providers to access patients’ current and historical diagnostic images. 

There are many benefits to HDIRS. For example, when a patient is admitted to one of these hospitals or transferred from one hospital to another, the need to wait for CDs or to repeat diagnostic examinations is eliminated. The patient's treatment time is shortened. 

Film library

The film library is a key part of the Medical Imaging Department, responsible primarily for the maintenance of images that are on films as well as the transferring of digital images onto CDs. The use of film in Medical Imaging has been gradually replaced by digital images through the use of PACS.

Hours and contact information

General site: Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tel: 416-756-6169