Japanese operator KDDI and TeraRecon, a US firm, are to jointly launch a cloud-based medical imaging service for small and medium sized Japanese hospitals. The service deliver the images that hospitals take on MRI and CT systems to the operator’s own servers which convert them into 3D format for the medical institutions.

The partners believe the service will be attractive to the target market because it will offer savings for smaller hospitals over buying their own server and other hardware, as well as the ongoing operation and maintenance costs involved in running their own systems. The resulting 3D images will be viewable on PCs, tablets and smartphones.