ZNA hospital group in Belgium extends Agfa HealthCare’s ICIS to integrate all medical images onto a single cloud-based platform

All relevant images will become part of the patient record, regardless of source, leading to an image-enabled EMR

Solution will integrate all medical images from different departments and facilities, whether DICOM or non-DICOM.
In parallel, ZNA is deploying a new EMR; through collaboration, ICIS will image-enable the EMR.
Deployment of zero-download ICIS VIEW will provide enhanced viewing and sharing of images via portal and collaborative platform, using a browser-based viewer.

Agfa HealthCare announced that the ZNA hospital network of Antwerp, Belgium, is extending its existing Agfa HealthCare ICIS imaging platform beyond radiology. With the deployment, all other image-producing departments of the hospital group will be integrated, whether they produce DICOM or non-DICOM images. In addition, patient images from other facilities can be quickly and easily imported as well. The ICIS VIEW zero footprint image viewer will be implemented for internal and external image distribution, for all types of medical images.

Off-site image archiving and storage
With nine sites in the Antwerp area, ZNA is not only among Belgium’s leading hospital groups, but is also one of Europe’s top 10 care organisations. The group services some 44% of the Antwerp region’s 1 million inhabitants, with a combined total number of 2500 beds and 7000 healthcare professionals. Each year, the group performs more than 1 million consultations, lab and imaging exams and treats 75,000 in-patients.

ZNA has run IMPAX PACS on a software as a service (SaaS) basis since 2010. The first hospital in Belgium to implement the ICIS VNA platform, all image archiving and storage is handled off-site, at Agfa HealthCare’s data center in Mortsel. Currently the hospital stores 33 TB in the ICIS VNA, the equivalent of 1.2 million studies.

Extending to an enterprise-wide imaging platform with ICIS
ZNA was very satisfied with the roll out of the solutions, and with the excellent relationship it developed with Agfa HealthCare. Seeing that ZNA and Agfa HealthCare share the same long-term vision, the hospital network decided to extend its ICIS VNA platform into an enterprise-wide solution. The workflow already integrates images from radiology and nuclear medicine.  Now, DICOM and non-DICOM images from other departments will also be included, as well as images brought by patients from other sites, using e.g. CDs. The goal is to archive all medical images from different departments into a single platform, and to integrate the images in the electronic medical record (EMR). As part of this, ZNA is also deploying a new EMR system. The result will be a complete and comprehensive view on patient data within the EMR. The roll-out of the ICIS enterprise imaging platform and the EMR are being coordinated to achieve this goal.

With the ICIS VIEW zero-download image viewer, caregivers inside or outside the hospital will have on-demand image and report access, within the context of ZNA’s patient and GP portal, Sara-i, and its regional integration via the COZO platform. Sara-i provides external users with secure access to reports and images, while COZO is a collaborative platform allowing healthcare providers to share health information, including images.

Easy integration of images, from any source
“Images can come from almost anywhere in the care continuum now, and hospitals need a way to manage and access them, in order to have a comprehensive, 360° view of the patient,” says Ivo Denissen, head of Managed & Cloud Services EMEA , Agfa HealthCare. “The workflow needs to be completely integrated into the EMR, so that images can be imported at the point where the consultation takes place. With the integrated ICIS and EMR, a patient at ZNA can arrive at any department, for example orthopaedics, with a CD of images from another hospital, and the receptionist right there can integrate the images into the EMR, through the ICIS workflow engine. So authorised physicians and caregivers have the images they need, regardless of source, at their fingertips.”

“We are very pleased to have a trusted partner who can help us achieve our vision to include medical imaging in our EMR,” says Rudy Poedts, General Manager Administration and ICT, ZNA. “Deploying the EMR and ICIS in a coordinated way ensures from the start that they will integrate smoothly, while speeding up the implementation process.”

“Having an EMR image-enabled by ICIS will allow us – every care provider – to view images and related documents and reports, no matter where we are, and no matter the source,” says dr. L. Roex, Head of Radiology, ZNA .  “In addition to creating a smoother, more efficient workflow for us, this will also improve our ability to provide the top patient care we always aim for.”

Source: Agfa 

26 March 2014

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Agfa, EMR, patient data, cloud computing, IT solutions, hospital, digital imaging, imaging platform ZNA hospital group in Belgium extends Agfa HealthCare’s ICIS to integrate all medical images onto a single cloud-based platform All relevant images wi...