Agfa wins major RIS/PACS/Speech contract at second largest hospital group in the Netherlands

Isala hospital group chooses Agfa HealthCare to integrate medical information flows following stringent EU-style tender

Mortsel, Belgium March 1, 2006, The Isala hospital group in Zwolle, the Netherlands, has chosen Agfa HealthCare for the installation of an extensive RIS/PACS/Speech solution which will integrate medical patient information flows between its two sites.

The decision is the result of a stringent tender procedure that followed European Union (EU) regulations that govern tenders received by public institutions.

The Isala hospital group’s order marks one of the largest RIS/PACS (Radiology Information System/Picture Archiving and Communications System) solutions to be contracted in the Netherlands. The new system will integrate the Isala hospital group’s radiology and nuclear medicine systems, replacing its different RIS solutions with a single RIS from Agfa HealthCare, linked to the central hospital appointment scheduling program. At the core of the solution is Agfa HealthCare’s new IMPAX™ 6.0 PACS solution, featuring a high availability Windows cluster server set-up spread over two hospital sites. This web-based, smart client solution will be linked to the existing Hospital Information System (HIS) and Electronic Patient Record (EPR).

“As the second-largest hospital group in the Netherlands, our needs are quite sizeable,” explained Wim Huurnink, one of the Project Managers for the Isala Klinieken. “We benefit from Agfa HealthCare’s persona-based design, which provides a unique access point to the RIS/PACS solution for different roles in the hospital. Agfa HealthCare’s web-based IMPAX solution will be available in all departments, with workstations tailored to the needs of each department. In Radiology we have fifteen IMPAX diagnostic display stations with floating Volume 3D software licences; Nuclear Medicine has access to IMPAX with an integrated functionality for multi-modality fusion and viewing with the best lesion tracking and quantification options; and in the conference rooms we have IMPAX radiologist workstations with conferencing function connected to medical beamers. Our labs and clinical departments also have specific enterprise access to IMPAX 6.0 at their disposal.”

To facilitate an objective choice between vendors, Isala Hospitals decided to follow the EU tender procedure, which entails a completely paper-based process, including verification in a large Dutch hospital. Said Wim Huurnink: “We asked a team of radiologists, nuclear medicine physicians, technologists, application specialists, a purchaser and the head of the IT department to independently score the anonymous proposals on a series of criteria, such as functionality, technicality, price and maintenance. Agfa HealthCare emerged as the vendor with the best score. Isala expects a longterm partnership with Agfa HealthCare.”

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Geertrui De Smet

Global PR Manager HealthCare

Agfa HealthCare

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