TORONTO An investment in new digital technology has made The Scarborough Hospital (TSH) the first in the world to run two key diagnostic imaging systems on an integrated platform-a major bene- fit for cardiac patients who can now get faster, more accurate diagnoses and treatment. The advanced system allows for the digital sharing and analy- sis of cardiology and radiology images on a secure network, enabling physicians to consult with colleagues in real time. It also means patients who undergo diagnostic tests such as echocar- diograms at one TSH site can have the results quickly reported to a physician at the other cam- pus.
“Faster reporting is probably the key benefit for both patients and physicians,” says Dr. Jim Cherry, a cardiologist at TSH. “Any time we can speed up that process, we are able to diagnose and treat sooner.” And that, says Martin Goldstein, the hospital’s Patient Care Manager, Diagnostic Services, is already resulting in better patient-centred care. “From the time we have an image to the time a report is available…is now a lot faster. It can mean the difference between days and hours.” The system combines Agfa Healthcare’s IMPAX 6.3.1 and Cardiovascular 7.7, which inte- grates a Radiology and a Cardiology Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) into a single unified platform.
Traditionally, these two systems are run as separate entities, each with its own operating system. Agfa’s system can manage image data from a variety of dif- ferent modalities including angiography, echocardiography, nuclear medicine and cardiac CT and MR systems. “The IMPAX system puts us on a path where our next soft- ware upgrade could mean the capability to use almost any diag- nostic imaging modality on this single platform,” says Goldstein. Being the first hospital in the world to adopt the combined IMPAX system is “revolutionary,” says Dr. Cherry. “We probably skipped a few generations of technology to upgrade to this point,” he says, adding that in the past, echocar-diogram images were stored on VHS tape. “Now, we have quality digital images that can be shared, and we have new measurement tools not previously available to us.” This is proving particularly valuable for diagnosing heart fail- ure in patients of the hospital’s Heart Function Clinic.
For more information, please contact:
Dave Bourne, Manager, Corporate Communications The Scarborough Hospital, (416) 438-2911 ext. 6836 dbourne@tsh.to