Method and apparatus for transmission and storage of digital medical data

An apparatus for transmission of digital data between at least two separate locations connected by optical, wired or radio frequency data paths of limited bandwidth, the apparatus employed at a first one of the locations and comprising:

• a processing device;
• a memory device coupled to the processing device;
• and
• at least one network interface connected to at least one of the data paths and in communication with the processing device;
• wherein the processing device is programmed to separate the data arriving at one of the locations into at least bulk content and metadata, select one or more target locations from the locations for storage based on a calculation using storage capacity available at respective ones of the target locations, processor utilization available at respective ones of the target locations, and network bandwidth available to respective ones of the target locations, and transmit the bulk content to at least one of the selected target locations for storage, the calculation transforming values relating to the storage capacity, the processing utilization and the network bandwidth associated with the target locations into rankings of the target locations with respect to each other;
• and
• wherein, when the bulk content has been stored at the selected target locations and an event occurs that changes the rankings of the locations, the processor is programmed to determine that the rankings of one or more locations have changed, and recalculate the rankings of the locations.