Agfa HealthCare Collaboration With Canadian Centers

Agfa HealthCare (Mortsel, Belgium), a developer of healthcare informatics systems, has concluded negotiations with the Réseau Universitaire Intégré de Santé (RUIS) Laval (Quebec, Canada) and RUIS Sherbrooke regions of Quebec (Canada), for the implementation of its Impax PACS (picture archiving and communication systems) and diagnostic imaging repository (DI-r) systems.

The contract negotiations included the precise planning, configuration, and timing of the two large-scale projects. The agreements, which are worth in excess of EUR 40 million/CAD 60 million and include a five-year plan for support and an option for two additional years, are expected to be signed by the end of the year, with implementation of each region's two mirrored DI-r systems starting early in 2007.

The implementation for RUIS Laval, which will see Agfa HealthCare's Impax PACS installed locally at 51 sites along with a large-scale regional image repository, will acquire, store, and manage about 2.3 million patient exams per year; making it one of the largest regional PACS installations in Canada. The regional PACS will allow RUIS Laval to optimize limited radiologist resources to provide the highest levels of care for both urban and rural populations. The deployment of the mirrored DI-r and local PACS for RUIS Laval is expected to last 30 months.

Every hospital in the region will have its own local PACS connected to its own modalities and information systems. Each local PACS will then store a copy of every exam to the regional DI-r for permanent storage and to allow other healthcare providers to easily access a patient's exam history, regardless of where it was acquired.

The project for RUIS Sherbrooke will see Agfa HealthCare's DI-r system implemented to provide permanent storage and regional exam access for the existing PACS installed in the region's 15 hospital sites. Approximately 1.1 million exams are generated in RUIS Sherbrooke each year. The selection of the Agfa HealthCare DI-r highlights the interoperability and connectivity strengths of the system, since the local PACS are provided by two other vendors. The deployment of RUIS Sherbrooke's mirrored DI-r system will begin early in 2007 and is expected to last three months.

"We are very proud to be working with such innovative and forward thinking customers. The benefits that our solution will bring will ultimately help improve healthcare across the RUIS Laval and RUIS Sherbrooke regions of Quebec,” said Michael Green, general manager, HealthCare Canada.



Related Links:
Agfa HealthCare
Réseau Universitaire Intégré de Santé (RUIS) Laval