Ipswich sticks with Agfa for PACS

Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust will move to a new PACS after signing a fresh contract with supplier Agfa Healthcare.

The Suffolk hospital trust expects to deploy the new ‘enterprise imaging for radiology platform’ in autumn this year. It will replace a legacy Agfa Impax picture, archiving and communications system, which was installed nine years ago as part of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

The five-year contract, which was signed in November, is worth £1.6 million.

In a statement, Agfa said the system will integrate with both the trust’s electronic patient record and document management system.

The radiology system is part of the company’s overall enterprise imaging platform launched in October 2015, which is based on vendor neutral archives and sells itself on integration.

The system’s “more efficient workflow, sharing of data” would support better collaboration with other regional health organisations, the company said.

The trust’s senior implementation specialist, Sara Clark, said the trust’s radiologists would also be able to use the system to access images from home, through mobile devices, and generate reports using voice recognition software.

Clark said better integration was an important part of the choice but the trust’s track record with Agfa had also played a big part in awarding the contract.

“We have built relationships with Agfa HealthCare and are familiar with their solutions.”

As well as the software, Agfa will also provide hardware, storage and technical support for the move to the new system.

Grant Witheridge, Agfa’s managing director for UK and Ireland, said: “Ipswich has a forward-thinking IT strategy that delivers solutions that benefit patient care now and in the future. I am delighted that the hospital acknowledges the benefits our enterprise imaging platform can bring as part of this strategy”.

Ipswich uses a Lorenzo EPR and Kainos Evolve document management system.

It was one of 15 trusts that chose Lorenzo under a revised deal in 2012 between the NPfIT local service provider for the North, Midlands and East, CSC, and the Department of Health, which provided trusts with up to £3.1 million each if they picked the EPR.

Digital Health Intelligence: holds information on the clinical systems installed at trusts across the UK and uses this to calculate a Clinical Digital Maturity Index score. Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust ranks 48 out of 153, with a score of 80. (requires log-in).