Nij Smellinghe Hospital in Drachten, The Netherlands, has selected Hosted Information Management (HIM) service from Carestream Health to remotely archive existing and future patient data. Under a contract between the companies, which runs for five years, the HIM service will securely store an estimated 9 Terabytes of both DICOM and non-DICOM images in a central data centre, from which authorised users can archive, share and distribute patient data. Nij Smellinghe Hospital is known for its use of advanced technologies and for delivering high-quality health services to the population of Drachten and the wider community. The hospital became filmless in 1999 following the installation of CARESTREAM PACS, becoming the first hospital within The Netherlands with enterprise-wide PACS facilities. This early adoption of PACS has resulted in a significant and growing volume of imaging studies and patient information requiring management.
"I searched for several years for a partner with the right solution to securely store and retrieve large volumes of patient data outside the hospital," said Wim Loman, IT Manager at Nij Smellinghe Hospital. "The growth of patient data is explosive-radiology images, video, sound, pictures, patient monitoring and data management systems-all with a storage requirement of a minimum of 15 years. Costs escalate as more and more storage within the hospital is required to meet the growing volume. The data must also be migrated over time to a new medium requiring additional administrators to ensure system uptime. In the long term it is more efficient and cost effective for an expert partner like Carestream Health to meet our needs for reliable archiving and retrieval."
A Data Access Point (DAP) will be installed at Nij Smellinghe Hospital to provide the interface to the HIM service, one of several eHealth Managed Services from Carestream Health. The DAP has storage capacity from a few days to several years of data production and can be customised to meet specific requirements and workflow. The DAP can exchange information from different local systems-modalities, viewing stations, PACS from different vendors, information systems such as RIS and the web portal using standard protocols such as DICOM or HL7-and archive the information in a patient-centric manner.
Connection is made to the data centre through a private network, which manages the transfer of data from the local site in an efficient and secure way. Several copies are stored of all data transmitted by the DAP for protection and disaster recovery.
"We have a mature PACS market here in the Netherlands and many hospitals see the benefits of managing the growing volume of patient data by remote storage," said Frank van Ravels, Regional Business Development Manager, North Europe, Carestream Health Netherlands. "We will operate the service 24/7 to eliminate the resource and financial issues associated with managing a complex infrastructure by converting them into an annual operating cost."
Developed in Europe, the key advantages of Carestream Health's remote archive services are:
- A flexible combination of on site and remote storage to meet existing workflows with on site storage ranging from a few days to several years
- Enables a virtual community with all sites connected, even where different PACS, modalities and workstations are operating
- Secure remote access by authorised users using intelligent streaming for smooth transfer of images, even large studies
- Data centre distribution to referring physicians with remote viewing through a web portal
- Interfaces to any PACS, modalities and RIS systems using IHE standards (DICOM, HL7)
Carestream Health, an independent company, has licensed the KODAK brand for use with its own brands-such as CARESTREAM, DIRECTVIEW and DRYVIEW-across its portfolio of leading-edge medical imaging and healthcare IT products.
Related news articles:
- Carestream Health's Profile
About Carestream Health, Inc.
Carestream Health, Inc., is a leading provider of dental and medical imaging systems and healthcare IT solutions; molecular imaging systems for the life science research and drug discovery/development market segments; and x-ray film and digital x-ray products for the non-destructive testing market. The company was formed in 2007 when Onex Corporation (TSX: OCX.TO) purchased Eastman Kodak Company's Health Group. For more information about Carestream Health, contact your Carestream Health representative or visit www.carestreamhealth.com.
CARESTREAM is a trademark of Carestream Health, Inc.
KODAK is a trademark of Kodak used under license.