At the European Congress of Radiology, to be held in Vienna from 7 March to 11 March, 2008, Agfa HealthCare will be highlighting its leading solutions in radiology imaging and imaging informatics for clinics, hospitals and regional healthcare enterprises.  Solutions on show include, amongst others, the introduction of a new set of IMPAX(TM) Suites to the European market, Computed Radiography (CR) systems, advancements in imager technologies, Clinical Information Systems (CIS), Reporting solutions, Cardiovascular, Enterprise Scheduling, and Advanced Clinical Applications.

 

The healthcare market is in constant evolution.  Healthcare providers are continuously aiming for higher quality, faster service, better outcomes, and increased customer satisfaction. To meet these ever increasing and complex clinical and patient demands, hospitals and healthcare facilities around the world are rapidly evolving and embracing IT solutions leading to more efficient, streamlined and cost effective care. 

 

Ever evolving healthcare IT (Health IT) solutions are helping to keep both volume and patient needs in check: from Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) to full-suite Enterprise IT systems. Over the years, Agfa HealthCare has demonstrated a successful transition from analog to digital solutions in hospitals around the world, and has introduced a new line-up of workflow solutions supported by expert services.

 

Agfa HealthCare's vision is clear: to accompany hospitals in their transition from analog to digital to IT solutions, with a view to improving the delivery of medical and patient care and supporting a more cost-effective healthcare arena. 

 

Agfa HealthCare's solutions are delivering on this promise today.   The company invites you to visit the Agfa HealthCare booth and experience our solutions at ECR 2008 (Expo B, booth 212-213).

 

 

In the Healthcare IT environment, the integration of all clinical Imaging data has become a necessity.  Today's clinical imaging IT applications need to work as one and provide consistent and predictable workflows and outcomes to suit each clinical need:  from the departments (such as Radiology, Cardiology, Orthopaedics) to a multi-site enterprise.  To meet this demand, Agfa HealthCare will highlight its new IMPAX(TM) Solution Suites at ECR 2008.

 

Agfa HealthCare's IMPAX Suites are an integration of several modules, each designed to support specific activities and solve specific problems, into one workflow. All suites will offer the latest Agfa HealthCare PACS and RIS solutions and are delivered with state-of-the art clinical applications designed for the specific environments in which they will operate.  The solution can be tailored at a modular level to fit customer needs today and tomorrow.

 

- IMPAX Enterprise Suite: For the multi-site healthcare enterprise and Integrated Healthcare Delivery Networks operating in multi-patient ID domains.

 

- IMPAX Hospital Suite: For the hospital that needs to integrate multiple specialties and disciplines.

 

- IMPAX Cardiovascular Suite: Focused on the specific needs of the cardiology department.

 

- IMPAX Orthopaedic Suite: Dedicated to the orthopaedic (Orthopedic) requirements for planning, measuring and simulating in a digital imaging environment.

 

- IMPAX Mammography Suite: Solves the imaging, workflow and reporting needs of Diagnostic and Screening Mammography (Women's health).

 

- IMPAX Radiology Suite: The solution that focuses on the self sufficient radiology department.

 

The IMPAX Enterprise Suite is the most encompassing of all IMPAX suites and is designed to support the special, mission-critical needs of large-scale healthcare institutions spanning multiple sites and multiple patient ID domains. The solution is driven by the company's IMPAX Data Center(TM), a vendor neutral enterprise archive that serves as a multi-media repository for all types of standards-based medical images and diagnostic results.

 

Designed to support full-scale hospitals this IMPAX Hospital Suite has been developed to deliver consistent and predictable workflows and outcomes in a multi-disciplinary environment. The solution offers complete clinical functionality, workflow-aware adaptability and scalability.  The IMPAX Hospital Suite is provided with a full 24x7 remote monitoring and management platform.

 

The IMPAX Cardiovascular Suite is a cardiology-centric solution that provides an answer to the whole range of cardiovascular imaging and reporting needs, from multi-modality cardiology and vascular image management to multi-vendor ECG management and structured reporting. Agfa HealthCare's IMPAX CV Suite provides the unique combination of a cardiology-centric application workflow and enterprise-wide resource management and data archiving. CathLab and Ultrasound dedicated modules are also available.

 

The IMPAX Orthopaedic Suite delivers a special solution for the Orthopaedic (Orthopedic) department, tying orthopaedic measurement schemes and digital implant templating into a strong package with the core IMPAX imaging and archiving platform.

 

The IMPAX Mammography Suite has been specifically designed to facilitate diagnostic breast imaging reading in digital environments, as well as digital screening workflows in local and multi-site organizations. It supports the display of mammography CAD through the integration with iCAD's Second Look® Digital and R2 ImageChecker® CAD image markers and is highly configurable with regards to workflow and integrations needs.

 

Agfa HealthCare's IMPAX Radiology Suite is designed to meet the needs of the self-sufficient Radiology Department.  The solution services the market of stand alone Radiology IT that works independent of the enterprise IT solution in place, and as a result does not require integration within other departments. 

 

 

Agfa HealthCare is constantly developing clinical applications designed to optimize workflow and meet the specific needs of clinicians. Below is a sampling of a few of the many applications integrated into IMPAX which will be on show at ECR 2008, within radiology and across clinical specialties:

- IMPAX Virtual Colonoscopy: This non-invasive CT colonoscopy clinical application enables the physician to start reading a complete (supine and prone) CT colonoscopy data set in the space of about 20 seconds. No user interaction is needed before starting the diagnosis. Lesion detection then takes place in a clinically relevant, user dependent pre-defined layout that offers the possibility to start reading the case immediately. The high level of automation ensures maximum productivity and streamlines results sharing.

- IMPAX Registration and Fusion: This application provides reading radiologists with an easy-to-use set of automated tools for comparing high resolution images with a single mouse click. The application supports the comparison of images from both the same image types (for example CT to CT and / or MR to MR for follow-up studies) and in multi modality cases (for example CT to MR). Besides supporting X-Ray image types, the software package also supports Nuclear Medicine by means of the registration and fusion of PET with CT and / or PET with MR.

- IMPAX OrthoGon: This advanced measurement tool for orthopaedic (Orthopedic) and paediatric (pediatric) specialists eliminates the need to perform manual measurements through the provision of an intelligent wizard that guides the physician through complex measurement schemes and compares results with normative values. Results can be saved as images and proprietary records in PACS, printed as reports, or exported for further processing.

- IMPAX X-ray Angio Analysis: Diagnosing peripheral arteries and angiograms requires dedicated image processing and analyses. This application offers a comprehensive package for reviewing vendor independent DICOM X-ray Angio (XA) CR and RF diagnostic images in the radiology domain. The application key functionalities are Digital Subtraction Angio (DSA) and quantitative analysis of lesions and morphologies. The package offers three types of analyses: Straight, Bifurcation and Ostial. The creation of reports for enterprise distribution is supported.

- IMPAX RDS: This application enables radiologists, and other specialists, to access the world's most comprehensive radiology database of diagnoses, case examples and images. Integration with the IMPAX system allows automatic results filtering based on anatomical region, improving both speed and diagnostic confidence.
 
DRYSTAR AXYS(TM) - the only table top imager that prints mammography images

 

At ECR 2008 Agfa HealthCare will showcase its latest flexible, table-top imager, delivering mammography (Women's Health) quality images.  The DRYSTAR AXYS(TM), now available worldwide, is a dual film size, direct digital imager with excellent image quality, offering a multi-application hardcopy solution, mammo-quality images with 508 dpi image resolution, very short access time, and convenient imaging with two film sizes on-line. The system offers a great range of possibilities and can be used in centralized workflows and with dedicated applications. 

 

The first DRYSTAR AXYS solution was recently supplied to the Ev. Jung-Stilling Hospital in Siegen (Germany), where the facility has been evaluating its capabilities. "The DRYSTAR AXYS system delivers excellent, diagnostic quality printouts of mammography studies, discerning small and subtle structures of the mamma", Dr. Dieter Hebborn, intern at the Center of Radiology commented "it delivers diagnostic quality of printouts of breast images".

 

 

At ECR 2008 Agfa HealthCare will offer its visitors the opportunity to discover a complete family of Computed Radiography (Radiology) systems, featuring new portfolio additions. Agfa HealthCare has the right CR system for every facility of any size.  All Agfa HealthCare digitizers offer the intuitive NX touch-screen interface user station, the radiographer's image identification and quality control tool, and seamlessly integrate with PACS, RIS and HIS that comply to current medical imaging standards.  MUSICA2(TM), Agfa Healthcare's latest intelligent and automated digital radiography image processing software, is now available for its entire CR solutions range.

 

- CR 30-X:  Agfa HealthCare's multi-application CR 30-X is a desktop, compact and convenient CR solution which is easy to install, use and maintain.  The CR30-X provides clinicians with a high quality, efficient and economical analog to digital solution, ideally suited for the smaller X-ray facilities such as satellite units, orthopaedic (orthopedic) facilities, chiropractors, and so forth.  The CR 30-X offers all the advantages of a digital workflow system, allowing clinicians to benefit from digital image sharing and archiving, access to teleradiology solutions and so on.

- CR 35-X: Agfa HealthCare's CR 35-X is a highly versatile digitizer that is specially designed for decentralized CR environments and has an amazingly small footprint. The CR 35-X is a multi-application digitizer, benefiting from three different image resolution modes. In combination with application-specific plates and cassettes, the CR 35-X supports a broad range of applications, such as General Radiography, Orthopaedics (Orthopedics), Extremities, Dental, Paediatrics (pediatrics), and Mammography (outside US).

- CR-85-X:  Agfa HealthCare's "do everything" CR 85-X is a multi-user digitizer, featuring a unique 10 cassette drop-and-go buffer that eliminates waiting times and maximizes productivity.  The system is ideally suited for centralized CR environments.  It is able to support the imaging needs of at least three X-ray rooms, supporting efficiencies on both a cost and flexibility level.  The CR 85-X is a multi-application digitizer, benefiting from three different image resolution modes and maximizing productivity for the complete clinical application range. It is suitable for the following applications: General Radiography, Orthopaedics (Orthopedics) -Extremities, Dental, Paediatrics (Pediatrics), and Mammography (outside US). Agfa HealthCare's CR 85-X is fully compatible with the CR 35-X (identical cassettes and imaging plates), and the two units can be combined to cover all centralized and decentralized radiography requirements, irrespective of healthcare facility type and size. 

- DX-S:  Agfa HealthCare's advanced DX-S solution is a groundbreaking Computed Radiography system that has created a new threshold in CR. It fills the gap in the current range of Digital Radiography Solutions, by providing a unique combination of image quality, speed and flexibility that exceed traditional CR solutions. The solution is designed to deliver a full range of imaging exams with minimum wait times and directly to the point of care.  It is used in environments where patient comfort, exam speed, and imaging flexibility are of paramount importance, including Emergency, Trauma, Paediatric (Pediatric), Neonatal, and General Radiography departments. Agfa HealthCare's DX-S offers increased image quality and potential for X-ray patient dose reduction through the DirectriX(TM) needle-based detector technology.  The DX-S is a leading alternative to DR (Direct Radiography) in all of the environments listed. It provides the flexibility and economical advantages of CR at the quality of DR.

 

Giessen and Marburg University Hospital in Germany recently acquired Agfa HealthCare's DX-S, with a view to reducing its X-Ray dosage for its smallest patients.  "Paediatric (pediatric) radiology has many unique and challenging requirements for acquiring and processing images", explains Prof. Dr. Gerhard F.P. Alzen, Director of the Paediatric Radiology Department, Center for Radiology, "These systems need to deliver images of superior quality, yet use the lowest possible radiation dose.  In spinal imaging we now achieve dose reductions of 50%, compared to 400 speed film."

 

 

Clinicians, nurses, patients and hospital management are looking for better implementation and monitoring of medical, clinical, administrative and managerial processes. Modern HIS/CIS solutions can help to improve clinical workflows and outcomes as well as hospital or healthcare facility efficiency and effectiveness. They enhance the quality of patient care and provide fast and complete availability of patients' histories, including all images and data, for quicker and more confident diagnoses and treatments while simultaneously delivering relevant administrative and financial support to hospital management.

 

Agfa HealthCare's ORBIS solution, with its modular approach allows its HIS/CIS solutions to be implemented on a step-by-step basis, allowing the benefits to be reached in an optimal way. ORBIS is available from single hospitals, small and large, up to IHDNs (Integrated Healthcare Delivery Networks) including National Healthcare Initiatives that encompass entire countries.

 

At ECR 2008 Agfa HealthCare will be demonstrating its complete ORBIS solution, covering, including ORBIS Live, Medical Workflow, Diagnostics workflow Nursing and Management.  Today, over 850 customers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, United States and Italy have Agfa's ORBIS installed in their facility totaling over 500,000 users.

 

 

 

Frederique Depraetere
Global PR Manager Agfa HealthCare
T +32 (0)3 444 80 06
frederique.depraetere@agfa.com
 
About Agfa

 

The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world's leading imaging and information technology companies. Agfa develops, manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare) and film related products and specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials).  Agfa's headquarters are in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries throughout the world. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 3,401 million Euro in 2006.

 

 

Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and image management solutions, and state-of-the-art systems for capturing, processing and printing images in hospitals and healthcare facilities. The company has over a century of experience in diagnostic imaging and has been a pioneer on the healthcare IT market since the early 1990's. Agfa HealthCare today employs 5,700 staff members, with sales offices and representatives in over 100 markets worldwide. Sales for Agfa HealthCare in 2006 were 1,452 million Euro, accounting for 43% of total group sales.