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Agfa HealthCare’s TalkStation™ Voice Recognition and Dictation System to be installed in more than 45 U.S. Veterans Hospitals


WEBWIRE

Advanced radiology reporting system helps government agency meet internal mandate to improve efficiencies

Mortsel - Belgium - October 3, 2006, Agfa HealthCare announced today that TalkStation, Agfa’s advanced radiology reporting system, will be installed at more than 45 hospitals run by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This will be the largest TalkStation installation in the United States and it will include the most recent version, TalkStation 3.1, which has been validated to work with the VistA information system that is in use at every VA hospital.

Agfa demonstrated how TalkStation could help the VA meet its internally mandated requirement to be more efficient by decreasing report turnaround time and improve the quality of care. Agfa was able to show how the addition of TalkStation will make the VA’s radiology staff more responsive to patients and can accomplish more in less time.

Dr. Elliot Sandberg is the Chief of Imaging Service with the VA’s Denver-based East Colorado Health Care System (ECHCS) and Associate Professor of Radiology and Neurology with the University of Colorado’s Health Sciences Center (UCHSC). For Dr. Sandberg, the decision to purchase PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) and ultimately opt for the Agfa solution was user driven. Dr. Sandberg says that the evolution into a Voice Recognition (VR) environment has proven to represent an exceptionally valued supplement to the imaging service at the Denver VA Hospital as well as its extensive regional Teleradiology program.

“Our clinical colleagues appreciated the value of reliable and timely access to imaging studies. The convenient access to PACS images has increased the demand for a more rapid turnaround time of transcribed and verified reports. VR has represented a cost and quality effective response to our reporting mandates,” said Dr. Sandberg. “The integrated TalkStation 3.1 has proven to represent an effective answer to our reporting requirements. This cutting edge technology has proven to enhance the efficiency (workflow) of our radiologists and we are perceived to be a more responsive partner with regard to patient management by our referring colleagues. This latter point can prove to be very valuable within our competitive healthcare environment,” Dr. Sandberg added.

Each of the hospitals is expected to be running TalkStation 3.1 by early 2007. Installation of TalkStation 3.1 paves the way for the tighter PACS integration provided by IMPAX™ 6.0, Agfa’s web-deployable image and information management solution.

“We have successfully demonstrated how TalkStation decreases report turnaround time compared to manual methods, freeing VA radiologists to do the work they were hired to do - read and interpret images to provide increased quality care for the nation’s veterans,” said David Chambers, vice president, Sales and Marketing Americas, Agfa HealthCare. “We value our relationship with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for this and other Agfa product lines.”



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