Novarad Fortifies Medical Imaging Against a Rising Tide of Cybercrime

PROVO, UT – August 27, 2026 – In a move that addresses two of the most critical pressures facing modern healthcare—escalating cyber threats and the relentless demand for clinical efficiency—Novarad has deployed a significant update to its enterprise imaging platform. The company announced it has upgraded over 1,000 customer sites worldwide to NovaPACS EI version 9.1, a release that positions security not as a feature, but as the fundamental bedrock of a more intelligent and connected imaging ecosystem.

While the update introduces compelling advancements in artificial intelligence and mobile diagnostics, its most urgent narrative is one of defense. By hardening its architecture against attack and reducing reliance on external vendors, Novarad is responding directly to a digital pandemic that has crippled hospitals, compromised millions of patient records, and proven that in healthcare, data security is synonymous with patient safety.

Building a Digital Fortress in a Hostile Landscape

The backdrop for this release is grim. According to recent industry analysis, the healthcare sector is under unprecedented siege. In 2024, a staggering 67% of healthcare organizations were victims of ransomware, a four-year high that defies the declining trend in other industries. The financial toll is immense, with the average cost to recover from an attack climbing to $2.57 million. Perhaps more alarmingly, recovery is slowing, with 37% of affected organizations now needing more than a month to restore normal operations.

A critical vulnerability lies in the supply chain. As Novarad’s own press release notes, a reported 80 percent of compromised records are not stolen directly from hospital servers but are siphoned through third-party vendors and software partners. This makes the security posture of a hospital’s technology partners as important as its own firewalls. It is this specific threat that Novarad’s 9.1 update confronts head-on.

“The entire ecosystem is built, tested, and supported by Novarad,” said Dr. Wendell Gibby, the company's founder and CEO. This statement is more than a marketing slogan; it’s a strategic declaration of architectural control. By minimizing the number of “outside hands” on the software, the company aims to shrink the attack surface that hackers so often exploit. This in-house approach is a deliberate counter-narrative to the fragmented, multi-vendor solutions common in enterprise IT.

Version 9.1 translates this philosophy into tangible security controls. Recognizing that cumbersome security is often bypassed, the platform offers flexible authentication that integrates with a hospital’s existing IT framework. Facilities can choose from Azure SSO, LDAP, or two-factor authentication, all governed by the access policies IT already enforces. This eliminates the need for a separate, parallel set of credentials and rules, reducing administrative overhead and the potential for human error. Under the hood, improvements to service redundancy and server load balancing are designed to ensure the system remains available and responsive, even as data volumes grow or in the event of a hardware failure—because a system that is down is as damaging as one that is breached.

The Radiologist's Integrated Co-Pilot

While fortification is the priority, the 9.1 update also delivers a powerful suite of tools designed to make radiologists faster and more effective. The release introduces an “assistive intelligence” suite that is noteworthy not just for its capabilities, but for its seamless integration. In an era of increasing tool fatigue, where clinicians often toggle between multiple applications to read a single study, Novarad has embedded its AI directly into the primary reading environment.

This built-in suite provides sophisticated segmentation of organs, coronary arteries, bone, vertebrae, and the heart, and can even calculate body fat from a scan. The output appears as an overlay or data point within the radiologist’s existing workflow, not in a separate pop-up window or application. This seemingly small design choice has a profound impact on efficiency and cognitive load. “Having AI insights appear contextually within my primary viewer, rather than in a separate window, saves critical minutes on every complex study and reduces the cognitive load,” noted one imaging specialist familiar with similar integrated systems.

Furthermore, Novarad is empowering facilities to become active participants in the AI revolution. The platform includes a built-in AI training system with image labeling, allowing sites to train their own custom models on their own anonymized data. This opens the door for developing highly specific algorithms tailored to a hospital’s unique patient population or research interests, moving them from passive consumers of AI to active innovators.

Unifying Care Beyond the Reading Room

The impact of NovaPACS EI 9.1 extends far beyond the darkened reading room, aiming to break down the information silos that have long plagued healthcare. The update reinforces two key pillars of modern care delivery: secure mobility and deep workflow integration.

MobileRad360, the platform's mobile component, makes the PACS securely accessible from any device. With built-in Novarad multifactor authentication, radiologists can review their schedules, correct reports, and even sign off on studies from a tablet or smartphone. This flexibility is no longer a luxury but a necessity for providing timely consultations and maintaining productivity in a world where clinicians are rarely tethered to a single workstation.

Equally important is the platform’s strengthened integration with major Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems, including Epic. By placing imaging directly within the EMR, the system ensures that a patient's complete story—clinical notes, lab results, and diagnostic images—is available in a single, unified view. This is crucial for referring physicians and specialists who need immediate context for clinical decision-making.

The most sophisticated example of this unified approach is found in the new advanced modality views. Instead of a one-size-fits-all viewer, version 9.1 provides tailored environments for cranial, breast, cardiac, and abdominal imaging. For instance, the updated NovaCardio module includes refreshed stress echo and ECG viewers, cardiac-specific hanging protocols, and structured reporting. “For years, our cardiology and radiology images lived in separate universes,” commented a hospital IT manager. “Integrating them into a single PACS with a unified worklist doesn't just improve efficiency; it fundamentally improves our ability to collaborate on patient care.” This consolidation eliminates the need for cardiologists to use a separate system with its own login and worklist, creating a more cohesive and efficient diagnostic journey for cardiovascular patients.

With the 9.1 update, Novarad is making a clear argument: the future of medical imaging depends on platforms that are simultaneously fortresses and highways—impenetrable to threats but seamlessly open to the clinicians who rely on them. By weaving security, intelligence, and accessibility into a single fabric, the company is providing its customers with a robust toolset to navigate the complex realities of modern healthcare.