Exchange System Provides Secure Transfer of Patient Studies Among Healthcare Organizations

A new patient studies exchange solution eliminates dependence on CDs and DVDs for data transfer.

Agfa HealthCare (Mortsel, Belgium), a leading provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare information technology (IT) solutions, presented the prerelease version of Impax Exchange, a solution that provides secure, effective transfer and localization of patient studies among hospitals and other healthcare organizations at Radiological Society of North America's (RSNA) 2009 annual meeting, held in December 2009 in Chicago, IL, USA. Impax Exchange is designed to further the reduction of redundant tests and treatments through improved information sharing.

"Impax Exchange is poised to change how providers view image distribution and sharing in the increasingly digital world of healthcare,” said Don Dennison, director, eHealth & Regional Health Business, Agfa HealthCare. "With Impax Exchange, providers no longer need to worry about lost or damaged CDs and DVDs, the mishandling of which can result in treatment delays, higher costs, and squandered staff resources.”

Lost CDs and DVDs can create inconveniences and delay the delivery of patient care, and one should not replace the problem of lost film with lost CDs. If diagnosticians and clinicians lack a patient's complete medical imaging history, they may delay care or order additional imaging exams, potentially adding to a patient's radiation exposure and increasing the overall cost of care.

"Impax Exchange is designed to optimize productivity and efficiency at both the site of the originator or referring physician and the receiving site,” continued Mr. Dennison, who leads the solution's development team. "Because of Impax Exchange's integrated dashboard, clinicians know when their images reach their destination successfully.”

Healthcare professionals will rely on Impax Exchange to import imaging studies, monitor study transfers, localize patient demographics, track jobs from Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) transmission, manage DICOM sources, destinations, and user accounts.

Impax Exchange works with existing picture archiving and communications system (PACS) and medical imaging repositories to protect IT investments. It establishes a health information network between disparate systems to exchange and share all types of DICOM medical imaging data.

Such data sharing complements meaningful use requirements related to data sharing and exchange as articulated by the Hospital Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee of the Office of the [U.S.] National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Just as Impax Exchange eliminates expensive virtual private network (VPN) and other connections, its use of web technology reduces software downloads and opens the network to users of varied systems. The system's user-friendly interface makes it easy for a worker with ground floor IT skills to import and request images.

Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and diagnostic image management solutions, and systems for capturing and processing images in hospitals and healthcare facilities.

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