Ireland’s Health Service Executive has confirmed that it has signed a €40m deal with US healthcare IT company, McKesson, to implement a National Integrated Medical Imaging system to digitise Ireland’s radiological services.
The three year deal will see Ireland’s hospitals digitise and store its full range of diagnostic images including ultrasound, x-rays, CT and MRI scans.
According to the HSE, all of the patient’s previous information and current images will be held electronically in the radiology department, outpatient clinics and hospital wards and will be able to be sent to GPs.
The HSE first went out to tender for a national picture archiving and communication system in October 2008 to digitise and share images across the country, starting with implementation across the 35 hospitals that are still using film pictures.
It shortlisted the final candidates at the end of last year, which included Cerner, GE Healthcare, Agfa Healthcare, Philips and McKesson.
Professor Brendan Drumm, chief executive officer of the HSE said: “The National Integrated Medical Imaging System represents an important step towards ensuring the highest patient safety standards across a modern and complex healthcare system.
“The delivery of modern healthcare results in the production of vast amounts of complex data – particularly diagnostic imaging. A patient may require multiple examinations across a variety of modalities resulting in a large amount of data that must be interpreted, stored and shared across a number of health care services and professionals.”
The NIMIS project team will work together with the local hospital implementation teams to configure and install the system in each of the hospitals.
The first phase of hospitals that will deploy the systems include Beaumont Hospital, Sligo General, St. Luke’s Hospital in Dublin, and the Mid-West Region.
This will be followed by a second phase of hospital roll-outs which will include Waterford Regional Hospital, Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and the Mater Hospital.
Professor Neil O’Hare, HSE NIMIS project lead, said: “Another significant development available through NIMIS is that radiology reports dictated by voice recognition will be instantly available across the system and not delayed for several days while they are typed.
“Clinicians in all hospitals will have access to cutting edge advanced image interpretation tools. Clinical audit and other methods of quality assurance will be greatly facilitated, improving patient care and ensuring optimum efficiency and safety in delivery of radiology across the HSE.”