Agfa HealthCare has launched the IMPAX Data Center (IDC) 3.0. This new version of Agfa HealthCare's proven enterprise medical imaging repository, also called a Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA), is Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) and storage vendor agnostic. New to IDC 3.0 is support for VMware(TM) virtualization to deploy the IMPAX Data Center on any VMware(TM) compliant platform. With its conformance to medical standards such as DICOM and HL7 and the IHE technical framework, IDC 3.0 makes it possible for hospitals to distribute clinical data from different departments through any Electronic Medical Record or Electronic Health Record (EMR/EHR), using the facility's existing solutions.
Consolidation and collaboration
By providing a single point of storage for patient imaging data, IDC 3.0 enables hospitals of all sizes, as well as hospital groups, to consolidate imaging data from radiology PACS, cardiology PACS, and multi-disciplinary imaging solutions into a single, centralized, DICOM repository. Tightly integrated Agfa HealthCare XERO viewer software technology provides unified clinical viewing of images and reports across the enterprise and beyond via popular browsers without any additional client download. XERO is an integrated zero download universal clinical imaging viewer with outstanding conformance to the IHE technical framework. IDC 3.0 and the XERO viewer form two pillars of Agfa HealthCare's enterprise clinical imaging strategy.
The VNA solution also supports collaboration within healthcare communities, by offering real-time access to a patient's complete medical record - including diagnostic imaging - regardless of the facility in which the patient was treated. As part of the Health Information Exchange (HIE), IDC 3.0 consolidates hospitals' archives, enabling cost-effective management of patient data in a secure and controlled environment.
Supporting improved delivery of patient care
By allowing seamless sharing of data from different departments and facilities, IDC 3.0 enables improved continuity of care and more informed clinical decision- making. Eliminating the need for repeated and unnecessary exams through greater information sharing allows healthcare providers to reduce both cost and the amount of radiation to which a patient is exposed.
Data ownership
"Hospitals today are very concerned about vendor lock-in, and the risk of having their data essentially held hostage by their vendor," comments Koen Meeusen, Global Solution Manager IDC, Agfa HealthCare. "IDC 3.0 follows Agfa HealthCare's philosophy that patient data belong to the patient, and that the healthcare institution is the 'gatekeeper' - not the informatics vendor! That's why we added new archival storage plug-in features to our PACS-agnostic solution. IDC is highly conformant to DICOM, HL7 and the IHE Technical Framework, so not only can we preserve our clients' existing systems - we can actually enhance them."
Related news articles:
- Agfa HealthCare's Profile
About Agfa
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world's leading companies in imaging and information technology. Agfa develops manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), for the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare), and for specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). Agfa is headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries around the globe. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 2,948 million euro in 2010.
About Agfa HealthCare
Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading global provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions. The company has nearly a century of healthcare experience and has been a pioneer on the healthcare IT market since the early 1990's. Today Agfa HealthCare designs, develops and delivers state-of-the-art systems for capturing, managing and processing diagnostic images and clinical/administrative information for hospitals and healthcare facilities, as well as contrast media solutions to enable effective medical imaging results. The company has sales offices and agents in over 100 markets worldwide. Sales for Agfa HealthCare in 2010 were 1,180 million euro.