Having deployed Picture Archiving and Communications Systems to all 23 trusts in London by the end of last month, BT is now beginning work on a medical imaging archive which will be able to store and access images from across the cluster into one central image repository.
The local service provider to the London cluster has told E-health Insider that it already has a central image data store ready to deploy and are now in discussions with Connecting for Health to ensure it meets national information governance requirements. An interim system could be released by September.
BT’s clinical lead for PACS, Chris Whitton, told EHI: “It’s great that we managed to achieve the March deadline, on schedule and at no additional cost. But the project’s not completed just yet. We’re continuing to upgrade all the trust’s PACS and Radiology Information Systems and the next big benefit will be voice recognition.
“We are also aiming to begin phase two of our PACS programme as soon as we can, which is the creation of a medical imaging archive and the connection of PACS to this central archive. The project has been under way for some time and we have included clinical engagement to try and determine what they actually want it to do.”
Trusts in the cluster are currently using CDs to store images for non-PACS or Radiology Information System (RIS) viewing. Patients can request these, but the high definition the images are taken in means that the quality of view on another PC may differ from those on the PACS workstations.
It is also hoped that as well as hospital clinicians GPs will be able to access this data store, should they want to view images themselves. At present, access to the system is restricted to authorised hospital users only and the systems use multiple sign-on protection before you can access the images.
In order to research what is expected of a data store for the London cluster, BT have set up a PACS programme board, including one of the national clinical lead for PACS, Dr Tony Newman-Sanders, who is also a consultant radiologist for the Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust, an early adopter site of BT’s Phillips PACS system.
Dr Newman Sanders said: “At present, we are waiting for a single sign on system and our images are only stored locally. We send GPs reports on our findings, which has been made easier thorough digital dictation and will be further simplified with the introduction of real-time voice recognition.”
Dr Newman-Sanders oversaw the deployment of PACS at Mayday in September 2005 – the second Philips PACS deployment by BT in London – and integration with the trust’s existing iSoft Radiology Information System and their iSoft PAS. Read EHI’s feature on Mayday’s experience of implementing PACS
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