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South Tees hospitals signs seven-year deal with Agfa HealthCare

Contract upgrades existing Agfa HealthCare PACS and CR solutions, adding RIS, business intelligence and Cardiovascular Information System.

• Press release
• Mortsel, Belgium
• February 20, 2012 04:00

Agfa HealthCare announces today that it has signed a seven year contract with South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The contract is to update the hospital's picture archiving and communication system (PACS), radiology information system (RIS), Computed Radiography (CR) and Cardiovascular Information System (CVIS).

The seven-year contract will replace the Trust's existing Agfa HealthCare PACS, RIS and CR with fully-integrated IMPAX solutions (IMPAX 6.5, IMPAX RIS 5.7) and the IMPAX Business Intelligence solution, to provide historical, current, and predictive views of radiology operations. The contract will also supply the IMPAX Cardiology suite for Echocardiography and CathLab reporting fully-integrated with IMPAX 6.5 acting as a true enterprise PACS Viewing and distribution solution.

To allow the hospital to take full advantage of the advanced imaging and new PACS solutions, the upgrade will also include a fleet of Coronis Fusion 6MP DL diagnostic colour displays and Barco's secure online MediCal QAWeb service to enhance diagnostic confidence and provide 24/7 monitoring and uptime of all medical displays across the Trust.

Michelle Harrison, Radiology Systems Manager for South Tees Hospitals NHS foundation Trust, comments: "The current PACS and RIS contracts were due for renewal, which is why we went out to tender. We received five final bids, before awarding the contract to Agfa HealthCare. We felt that Agfa HealthCare's solutions were not only the best but remained value for money and allow us a fully integrated approach that will meet both local and national requirements now and in the future."

She adds: "Importantly, the Agfa HealthCare solution will also support both cardiology and radiology functions whilst providing real-time radiology business intelligence to optimise the use of clinical, business, and administrative data; to enhance efficiency, patient experience and competitiveness."

Grant Witheridge, General Manager of Agfa HealthCare UK, comments: "We are delighted that South Tees have chosen to remain with Agfa HealthCare and also incorporate our latest business intelligence and cardiology solutions. Having worked in partnership with the Trust for the last seven years, we regard South Tees as one of our flagship customers in the UK and look forward to extending this relationship into the future, helping the Trust achieve its goals using our integrated IMPAX product portfolio."

Scott Wilson, Sales Manager for UK and Ireland at Barco, added: "We are very pleased to have been selected as the display provider at South Tees, which will take their diagnostic imaging to the forefront of medical imaging technology. The Trust opted for the Coronis Fusion 6MP DL to fulfill a multitude of imaging requirements. The seamless 'Fusion' configuration enables radiologists to read grayscale, colour-enhanced and fused images side-by-side on a single screen in any combination without having to go to another screen, offering significant benefits over their current reading platform."