Carestream superPACS

Carestream Health has unveiled a new architecture at the European Congress of Radiology in Vienna. The architecture, which will be available to order in April, will enable trusts to bring together systems from multiple vendors and multiple sites.

This should enable them to streamline workflows by allowing patient information and images to be shared securely between all locations, route information to specialists, and equip radiologists with a unified set of powerful diagnostic tools.

Diana Nole, president of digital medical solutions at Carestream Health said: “Healthcare providers around the world need the ability to manage disparate radiology solutions at multiple locations without replacing existing RIS/PACS systems.

“This new infrastructure will also enable healthcare facilities to share patient information and enhance collaboration among clinicians.”

The architecture was unveiled alongside a number of other innovations from Carestream Health, including the newest generation of the company’s RIS/PACS platform. This incorporates a new PACS workstation with a power viewer.

The power viewer aims to increase the speed of interpretation and reporting for routine examinations and 3D imaging studies, where complex data sets need to be compared.

It can eliminate the manual and semi-automatic processes that are currently used to set up comparison tools. Radiologists will be able to directly view image data on different planes without the need to switch to other workstations or applications.

A number of advanced tools designed to boost productivity and improve radiology workflow have also been introduced.

The new platform is Microsoft .NET connected and also integrated with IBM’s Lotus Sametime technology, allowing staff members to communicate instantly.

Also showcased at the event was the industry’s first wireless, cassette sized digital radiographer detector, which can easily be incorporated into all types of radiology environments.

The detector works alongside new image processing software to display high-quality images in five seconds.

Nole explained: “We are convinced that, with the new system, we are in a position to speed-up the workflow and improve image quality, precisely because we can immediately see what pictures are taken.”

Carestream Health also delivered a KODAK 9500 3D System which will allow for three-dimensional imaging of the upper head and jaw.

The system is designed to maximize image detail in 3D to provide more accurate diagnoses and improved treatment, particularly in dentistry. The tools unveiled in Vienna should be available in the first half of 2009.

Link: Carestream Health