Northern Ireland Hospitals Get XDS-based Sharing Solution

It used to be that obtaining a patient’s medical records when not at their regular medical facility required a lengthy wait or a long phone call for important information to be transmitted. Now, electronic systems mean that records can be obtained and checked from almost anywhere with secure access to those files.

Sectra has rolled out the first deployment of a cross-enterprise sharing of documents (XDS) solution in the U.K. Radiology data for patients attending hospitals in Northern Ireland will now always be available at the point of care. No matter which medical facility the patient is attending, Sectra says the quality of care will be improved as a result.

The cross-enterprise sharing of images and information can now take place independently of RIS (Radiology Information System) and PACS (picture archiving and communication system) radiology IT solutions, through an XDS framework.

In September 2008, Sectra signed a ten-year contract with the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland for a large-scale RIS/PACS project. That partnership led to the NIPACS Programme, which delivered a RIS/PACS solution to 27 regional hospitals.

Through Sectra’s XDS technology, the two Northern Ireland hospitals not using Sectra PACS have access to the same images and information as their counterparts in the rest of the country.

"Successfully implementing a complex XDS solution such as this demonstrates our broad knowledge of medical imaging IT – an important quality when extended cooperation and communication are required to achieve healthcare efficiency targets," said Torbjorn Kronander, the president of Sectra's medical operations.

More than 1,100 hospitals, clinics and imaging centers worldwide use Sectra’s systems every day. Among them is Nashville General Hospital, which adopted a suite of integrated radiology IT solutions from Sectra in January.

Meanwhile, in November, Sectra launched support for the display and review of breast tomosynthesis images in its Sectra Breast Imaging PACS solution.