The Maggiore della Carità in Novara, Italy is currently installing a RIS/PACS from Carestream Health to manage and archive images from the Department of Radiodiagnostics and facilitate data sharing with Galliate Hospital. At present, the system is implemented in several departments at the Novara hospital, with the next phase of the project underway to extend implementation to the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Oncology section and install an IT infrastructure to enable Galliate Hospital to store data on the central PACS archive.
The Hospital of Maggiore della Carità in Novara, is a public institution run by the Italian National Health Service. A highly specialised institution and teaching centre, the hospital offers a comprehensive service in all medical and surgical specialisms, is the referral hospital for the north-west quadrant of the Piedmont region and is the leading oncology centre for the provinces of Novara, Vercelli and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola.
Once integrated, the Departments of Radiodiagnostics and Nuclear Medicine can work in synergy to increase the quality of service. "The investigations conducted complement each other," said Professor Alessandro Carriero, Head of the General University Department of Radiodiagnostics. "It is essential to make a comparison between investigations from other disciplines to arrive at a more accurate diagnosis. One increased beneficiary of this synergy will be the Department of Radiotherapy, which draws up treatment programmes based on results conducted either by the Department of Nuclear Medicine or the Department of Radiodiagnostics. Once they are able to access all the investigations, and view them in additional ways, even in 3-D, doctors will be able to recommend a more detailed radiotherapy programme. From there we will also utilise the PACS to track the patients clinical progression."
When delivering documentation to patients, outpatients are given a CD containing investigation images, together with a paper-based report. The new technology installed at the Department of Radiodiagnostics at Novara has also led to technology changes for referring general practitioners, who are increasingly finding their patients turning up with a CD instead of traditional films.
For inpatients, the hospital is working towards achieving, step by step, a completely paperless procedure. At present, departments can view investigations in two ways, either by connecting to PACS or by viewing the CD. Before long, digital signatures will be introduced and it will be possible to comply with legislation in a completely digital way.
"The quality and efficiency of the service we provide has improved," added Professor Carriero. "The images with which we work are no longer static, they are dynamic, and we can interact with them. The data is available twenty-four hours a day, something which would have been unthinkable up to a short time ago."
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