RIS, PACS Implemented in China

A large hospital in China is now implementing radiology information system (RIS) and picture archiving and communications system (PACS) into its infrastructure.

Agfa HealthCare (Mortsel, Belgium) has established its first Chinese version of Agfa's RIS and PACS, Impax, in the No. 1 Hospital of China Medical University (CMUH; Shenyang, China).

The No. 1 Hospital of China Medical University is one of the earliest hospitals using a hospital information system (HIS) in China. In the early 1990s it installed a HIS and set up a laboratory information system (LIS) in 2001. The radiology department of the hospital has 16 digital imaging modalities and provides more than 700 imaging diagnoses per day, producing 40 GB of image data on a daily basis.

At the site, Agfa HealthCare has installed its Impax 5.2 system in the Chinese language and the Chinese version of its RIS, managing the whole department workflow, including patient administration, image management, reporting, and report distribution. It concerns in total 75 RIS/PACS workstations that are currently used by 110 radiologists. In the clinical department, Agfa has also installed an Impax Web 1000 client. As stated by the largest news agency in China, XinHua News Agency, it is a milestone that "Agfa HealthCare has, for the design of this system, adapted the Chinese hospital radiology management workflow and combined it with international workflow specifications.”

In early 2005, Agfa HealthCare established its own R&D center for healthcare information technology (IT) in Shanghai. This development group, among others, adapted the existing software to align it to the local workflow. The CMUH has chosen to work with Agfa because it has globally proved successful PACS/RIS implementations and provides localized systems that optimize the radiology workflow in Chinese hospitals. "Every country has different healthcare systems. Agfa's solution really matches the local requirements and improves the efficiency of hospitals,” said Prof. Xu Ke, the CEO of CMUH.

Agfa HealthCare and the hospital have also agreed to jointly establish a long term co-operation model, which means that the site in Shenyang will act as PACS/RIS system application training center in China.



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