Lothian University Hospitals Trust is to upgrade its Radwise radiology information system (RIS) to a new web-based system with greatly enhanced functionality. The trust will be the first in Scotland to order this type of RIS from Wise Healthcare Systems’ Virtual Radiology solutions. Wise will be implementing the new Radwise 5 system and providing training and professional services to the trust which runs the Royal Victoria Hospital and Western General Hospitals in Edinburgh. Wise technical director, Andrew Underhill explained: “At the moment they have our legacy Radwise 4 product which is used purely as a RIS. This will be a RIS plus much more. It’s a very loosely coupled, component-based system so you can put together various levels of functionality very easily. It includes current RIS functionality but there’s also the software component of a PACS which can be used as and when required.” Radwise 5 has a built-in DICOM and HL7 broker for maximum integration capability and Wise say it will fully integrate with any Hospital Information System or EPR. It also offers RIS/PACS integration with Wise’s Image Tank PACS product or any other standards compliant PACS acquisition, archiving or communications system. The main initial benefit is expected to be improved workflow derived from Radwise 5’s functionality which is designed to streamline and control work processes and maximise clinical and administrative time. Being web-based, the system also offers the facility for authorised users to share images between sites within the trust and outside where a secure Internet connection is available. The system can also store digitally dictated results, enabling staff on the ward to call up a radiologist’s report on an image as soon as it is finished. In some cases this will overcome the need for dictated reports to go through a transcription process which can take hours or days.
