NHS coalition creates central repository for imaging and clinical data
Move will consolidate images, reports and patient information for University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and the Birmingham Womens NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and the Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust have announced they are creating a central repository for imaging and clinical data.
The move will involve the deployment of GE Healthcare’s Vendor Neutral Centricity Clinical Archive as part of a five-year managed service contract.
The repository will consolidate images, reports and patient information from both hospitals. Data from legacy systems including PACS, cardiology and RIS will also be migrated.
Once in operation, the repository will provide clinicians with easy access to relevant patient information, enabling more informed diagnoses and treatment decisions to be made and helping to save clinician time and NHS money.
In another move, GE’s Centricit Clinical Archive will be installed at two separate locations as part of the hospitals’ contingency plans. One VNA will be installed at the hospital IT centre and another at a location five miles offsite. This approach will meet requirements for continuity of service and high availability so that the quality of care is not compromised in the event of a crisis.
Forming one repository for our imaging and clinical data in partnership with the Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust is a cost-effective solution which benefits patients and clinicians of both hospitals
Paul Brettle, divisional manager of radiology at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Forming one repository for our imaging and clinical data in partnership with the Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust is a cost-effective solution which benefits patients and clinicians of both hospitals.”
The two trusts will initially draw on levels one and two of the level four VNA, which will enable them to store and retrieve radiology PACS images and reports as well as images from their cardiology system. This will also include lifecycle management of images stored in the VNA to support the trusts’ data retention policy as well as helping to reduce, control and manage costs.
Later on they will be able to take advantage of levels three and four, which will enable them to store non-DICOM sources produced by different departments in one consolidated archive. Eventually they will be able to take the archive outside of the confines of their organisations and connect the patient history across the region. This will provide a gateway to regional image exchange, thereby facilitating collaboration between clinical experts to achieve more rapid and effective diagnoses for patients.
- Companies:
- Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
- GE Group
