100 Millionth PACS Study Captured in the UK

A huge milestone has recently been achieved in the United Kingdom by switching from X-ray film to digital image capture.

The 100 millionth Agfa HealthCare (Mortsel, Belgium) picture archiving and communications system (PACS) study, across the LSP North East and East and East Midlands Clusters in the United Kingdom, was captured by Queens Medical Center (QMC), part of the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH; UK) National Health System (NHS) Trust in December 2007.

Over £1 million has been saved in terms of film processing, maintenance, and staff costs since the simultaneous installation of Agfa HealthCare's Impax to 3,500 users across the NUH NHS Trust. As part of the National Program for information technology (IT), NUH was one of the first Trusts within the two Agfa HealthCare PACS clusters to be installed with the Agfa PACS. These systems are now in use on a 24/7-hour basis.

Andrew Fearn, director of Health Informatics, at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust commented on the capture of the 100 millionth Agfa HealthCare PACS study and the effect the technology has had on the Trust. "PACS has impacted on every aspect of healthcare delivery across our Trust and the patients we serve. Agfa Impax has improved the relevancy and efficiency of multi-disciplinary team meetings, whether the participants are all in one room or in multiple rooms across various locations. It has enabled the faster treatment of patients and moreover it delivers a far safer treatment pathway, entirely eliminating the problem of lost files.”

December 2007 was also the month that Agfa HealthCare completed the rollout of its Impax PACS across its clusters as part of the National Program for IT. Having been initially installed with Impax version 5 in phase I of the deployment, NUH is now awaiting its upgrade to the more advanced Impax version 6 in phase II. This will bring further functionality and additional benefits to staff and patients alike.

Agfa HealthCare is a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and image management solutions, and state-of-the-art systems for capturing, processing, and printing images in hospitals and healthcare facilities.


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Agfa HealthCare
Nottingham University Hospitals