New Software Designed to Streamline Nuclear Medicine Workflow

New nuclear medicine software has been developed to fully integrate and streamline a hospital’s nuclear medicine department workflow and enhance interdepartmental communications.

Specialized functionalities include processing, reading, and reporting of all nuclear medicine, single photon emission tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), and multimodality images.

Agfa HealthCare (Mortsel, Belgium) has signed an agreement with Ghent University Hospital (UZG; Belgium) to implement its Impaxfor Nuclear Medicine solution, including the Oasis for Impax dedicated nuclear medicine workstation package, within the hospital. The system is expected to be operational by the end of 2013 and will complement UZG’s Impax radiology information system/picture archiving and communication system (RIS/PACS).

UZG is one of the largest hospitals in the Flanders region of Belgium. Every medical specialty for regular and intensive care is represented in this 1,000-plus bed hospital, which treats approximately 75,000 inpatients and 400,000 outpatients annually. Its goal is to use treatment, education, and research to improve the lives of patients. Enhancing decision-making and analysis for diagnosis is part of this aim.

Impax for Nuclear Medicine is built on Agfa HealthCare’s Impax 6 RIS/PACS/Reporting workflow platform for image and data management. Designed to meet the unique needs of the specialty, it allows hospitals to fully integrate the nuclear medicine department’s workflow and to optimize interdepartmental communications. It comprises specialized functionalities to process, read, and report all nuclear medicine, SPECT, PET, and multimodality images. User-friendly features include guided workflows that incorporate applications, data, and image processing within one unified image management and reporting application.

Impax for Nuclear Medicine comprises the Oasis for Impax workstation, developed by Agfa HealthCare in partnership with Segami Corp. (Columbia, MD, USA), which brings an integrated, fully featured nuclear medicine image processing and viewing package to the Impax workstation. Clinicians no longer have to switch between workstations, or manually synchronize patient study lists.

“Impax for Nuclear Medicine will allow us to easily consult and compare prior exams and data,” noted Prof. Ingeborg Goethals, head of the nuclear medicine department. “The solution is already being used in several sites in Europe, the Middle-East, and North America, so we were confident that it would also work well for us.”

Related Links:

Agfa HealthCare
Ghent University Hospital
Segami