How MyWorkDrive Fits Into DICOM and Medical Imaging Workflows

By Ron Bhojwani

Last Updated: September 23, 2026

DICOM files sit in an uncomfortable spot for most IT teams. A single study can run into the hundreds of megabytes or more, the data is Protected Health Information under HIPAA, and the people who need access, radiologists, referring physicians, outside consultants, are frequently working from outside the hospital network. Standard sync-and-share tools were not built for this combination of file size and regulatory weight. This is where a secure file access gateway like MyWorkDrive fits into the picture, and it is worth being precise about exactly where it fits and where it does not.

Large File Handling for DICOM Without Migration

MyWorkDrive's approach to large files starts from a simple premise: the file should not have to move. Instead of copying a study into a separate cloud repository, MyWorkDrive shares it directly from wherever it already lives, a Windows file share, Azure Blob Storage, or Amazon S3, using public or guest links that point to the file in place. That eliminates the duplication and transfer lag that comes with sync-based tools, since there's never a second copy sitting in a third-party store to keep in sync.

How a DICOM study reaches an outside physician: sync-and-share vs. an access gateway

Step	Typical sync-and-share tool	MyWorkDrive
Where the study lives	Copied into the vendor's cloud repository, then synced to each device	Stays on the Windows file share, Azure Blob container, or S3 bucket it was written to
Copies created	One in the vendor store plus a local copy on every synced device	None. Links and the mapped drive point to the file in place
Upload before sharing	Required. The study must finish uploading before a link works	Not required
Permission model	Rebuilt inside the tool, separate from the file server	Existing NTFS permissions through Active Directory or Entra ID
Transport	Sync client, provider dependent	HTTPS on port 443, no VPN
Large file transfer	Single sync stream per file	Multi-threaded parallel transfers with optional server-side ZIP compression
Where PHI sits at rest	Customer storage plus the vendor's cloud	Customer storage only

For day-to-day access rather than one-off sharing, MyWorkDrive's mapped drive client lets remote users, including off-site radiologists, mount the storage as a drive letter over HTTPS. It behaves like a local network drive without requiring a full-tunnel VPN, and the same mapped-drive access works whether the underlying storage is an on-premises file server, Azure Blob, or S3. On the performance side, MyWorkDrive uses multi-threaded parallel transfers and server-side compression, and the biggest practical lever for imaging-scale files is keeping the MyWorkDrive server close to the storage it's serving, since colocating the server with the storage backend removes most of the latency that shows up when a study has to hop between regions or providers.

HIPAA and GDPR Support for Medical Imaging Data

MyWorkDrive is built around a model that supports HIPAA and GDPR requirements rather than adding a separate storage layer that itself needs to be secured. Files stay in the customer's existing storage, permissions are enforced through Active Directory or Entra ID rather than a parallel permission system, and a Business Associate Agreement covering PHI handling is available, which is the mechanism HIPAA actually relies on rather than a certification badge. MyWorkDrive does hold one real, checkable certification: a FIPS 186-4 RSA algorithm validation from NIST, certificate 3018, which is a specific cryptographic validation rather than a general compliance claim.

HIPAA Security Rule technical safeguards (45 CFR 164.312) mapped to MyWorkDrive controls on an imaging share

Technical safeguard	What the standard requires	How MyWorkDrive addresses it
Access control, 164.312(a)	Limit ePHI access to authorized users; unique user IDs; automatic logoff	Existing NTFS and AD or Entra ID permissions enforced; MyWorkDrive can restrict access but cannot grant beyond storage ACLs; per-share client restrictions; configurable session timeouts
Audit controls, 164.312(b)	Record and examine activity in systems that contain ePHI	Authentication, file operations, share link lifecycle, admin changes, and device approvals logged; Syslog export to SIEM
Integrity, 164.312(c)	Protect ePHI from improper alteration or destruction	File contents are not stored on the MyWorkDrive server; edit and delete events are attributed to a user in the audit log; view-only mode blocks changes on sensitive shares
Person or entity authentication, 164.312(d)	Verify the identity of anyone seeking ePHI access	Authentication happens at the identity provider (AD, Entra ID, SAML SSO); MFA through Duo, Okta, Entra ID and others; MyWorkDrive does not store passwords
Transmission security, 164.312(e)	Guard against unauthorized access to ePHI in transit	TLS 1.2 or higher on all connections; single inbound port 443; no SMB or NetBIOS exposed to the internet

Safeguard language summarized from 45 CFR 164.312. These controls support a covered entity's HIPAA program; the risk analysis, policies, and BAA remain the organization's responsibility. A proposed update to the Security Rule would make several of these addressable specifications mandatory.

For imaging specifically, three controls matter most. Data leak prevention lets administrators put PHI-containing shares into view-only mode, blocking download, printing, or copying to a personal device, so a referring physician can review a study without a copy of it landing on an unmanaged laptop. Every file action, including who opened, downloaded, or shared a specific study, is logged with enough detail (user, IP, device, path, operation, result) to hand to an auditor. And because the imaging data never leaves the customer's own storage, there is no separate repository where PHI sits with a third party, which is the piece of the HIPAA Security Rule that trips up a lot of general-purpose file sharing tools.

DLP controls available on a PHI share and where each applies

Control	What it does	Applies to
View-only / download block	File opens in a secure viewer; no local copy is written	Web client, mapped drive secure view (supported file types), mobile
Dynamic watermark	Overlays viewer username, date and time, and custom text	Browser viewing, supported desktop clients, mobile
Clipboard blocking	Prevents copy-out from the secure viewer	Secure viewers, including mapped drive secure view for supported file types
Device approval	Allowlist of endpoints permitted to connect; monitor mode first, then enforce	Mapped drive and mobile clients
Public link guardrails	Expiration, password, view vs. download, download limits, all link events logged	Web share links
Per-share client restrictions	Enable or disable web, mapped drive, or mobile access for a given share	Any share

Sources: Security & DLP feature page and the Data Leak Prevention knowledge base article.

Clinical Limitations Worth Knowing Before You Deploy

MyWorkDrive is a strong fit for getting DICOM files securely in front of the right person outside the hospital network, but it is not a substitute for clinical imaging software. There is no embedded DICOM viewer. If an external physician opens a folder of .dcm files through MyWorkDrive's web portal, they'll see raw files, not rendered images. They still need to download the study into a dedicated viewer, such as RadiAnt or Horos, to actually read it. MyWorkDrive gets the file there securely and quickly; it does not replace the workstation that displays it.

There's also no metadata extraction or patient matching. Unlike a true vendor neutral archive, MyWorkDrive treats a DICOM file as a data payload, similar to how it would treat a PDF or a CAD file. It doesn't read the DICOM header, and it doesn't coordinate patient identity with an EHR platform. That correlation work still belongs to the PACS or VNA sitting upstream.

What MyWorkDrive does and does not do in an imaging workflow

Function	MyWorkDrive	Where it belongs
Remote access to study files without a VPN	Yes	MyWorkDrive
Drive-letter access for off-site radiologists	Yes	MyWorkDrive mapped drive client
Sharing a study with an outside consultant by link	Yes	MyWorkDrive public or guest links
Per-file audit trail of who accessed a study	Yes	MyWorkDrive audit log, exported to SIEM
Enforcing existing AD or Entra ID permissions	Yes	MyWorkDrive, inheriting from storage
Rendering and reading DICOM images	No	Dedicated viewer such as RadiAnt or Horos
Reading DICOM headers and metadata	No	PACS or VNA
Patient matching and EHR correlation	No	PACS, VNA, or EHR integration layer
Archiving and indexing studies (system of record)	No	PACS or VNA

The Typical Architecture: PACS to File Share to MyWorkDrive

In practice, most healthcare organizations that use MyWorkDrive for imaging are not replacing their PACS or VNA, they're extending its reach. Studies are acquired and archived in the clinical PACS as usual. From there, relevant files land on a Windows file share, Azure Blob container, or S3 bucket that MyWorkDrive already has access to. MyWorkDrive then becomes the layer that lets an off-site radiologist, a referring physician, or an external consultant reach that same storage securely, with the same permissions and audit trail as everyone else, without a VPN and without a second copy of the data anywhere. The clinical system stays the system of record; MyWorkDrive is the access layer on top of it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does MyWorkDrive replace a PACS or VNA for medical imaging?

No. MyWorkDrive doesn't archive, index, or interpret DICOM data. It provides secure remote and web access to studies that already live in a file share, Azure Blob, or S3 bucket, typically fed by an existing PACS or VNA. The clinical archive remains the system of record.

Can a radiologist view DICOM images directly inside MyWorkDrive?

Not natively. MyWorkDrive doesn't include a DICOM viewer, so a study opened through its web portal appears as raw files. The recipient needs to open those files in a dedicated viewer such as RadiAnt or Horos to read the images.

How does MyWorkDrive handle the size of DICOM studies?

It shares files directly from their existing location, whether a Windows file share, Azure Blob Storage, or Amazon S3, rather than copying them into a separate repository. Combined with multi-threaded transfers and server-side compression, and with the MyWorkDrive server colocated near the storage it serves, this avoids the upload and sync delays that typically slow down large-file transfers in standard sync-and-share tools.

Is MyWorkDrive HIPAA compliant for handling imaging data?

MyWorkDrive supports HIPAA requirements through access controls, audit logging, and a Business Associate Agreement covering PHI, rather than through a HIPAA certification, since HIPAA itself doesn't issue certifications to vendors. It does hold a FIPS 186-4 RSA algorithm validation from NIST (certificate 3018), which is a specific, verifiable cryptographic certification.

Can external radiologists or referring physicians access studies without a VPN?

Yes. MyWorkDrive's mapped drive client connects over HTTPS and mounts the storage as a drive letter, and files can also be shared through secure web links, both without requiring a traditional VPN connection.

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