National Naval Medical Center transfers four terabytes of PACS data with
Agfa Data Migration Service
13 February 2005
Mortsel, Belgium. Agfa HealthCare announced that The National Naval Medical
Center (NNMC) in Bethesda, MD, USA has chosen Agfa's IMPAX PACS (picture
archiving and communications system). The NNMC recently faced a cross-vendor
data migration challenge when it switched from a legacy PACS system to a new
IMPAX PACS. The NNMC chose Agfa for several reasons including the
standards-based, vendor-neutral platform of IMPAX, the transition benefits
of Agfa's Data Migration Service, and compatibility with other military
hospitals in the National Capital Area.
The time in which Agfa migrated approximately four terabytes (150,000
studies) of the NNMC's archive of general diagnostic, CT and MRI images and
RIS (radiology information System) data compared favourably to industry
benchmarks. The NNMC deemed the process accurate, with Agfa's
auto-validation tool saving the Navy significant time and cost. Now that the
NNMC's migration of the largest repository of PACS data is complete, it is
planning the migration of six years of ultrasound images and additional
reports to IMPAX from a separate archive.
"Maintaining an old PACS system to provide access to legacy images is
expensive and prevents an institution from maximizing the workflow benefits
available with today's next-generation PACS offerings," said Adriano Rosa,
Marketing Manager, Professional Services, Agfa HealthCare. "When replacing
older image management systems with new, higher-performing PACS solutions,
efficiencies in migrating legacy PACS image and RIS data are important
considerations in order to cost-effectively maintain patient care
continuity."
Key attributes of Agfa's Data Migration Service that contributed to the
successful cross-vendor PACS image and RIS data transfer at NNMC included:
- RIS and image data set matching algorithm with auto-validation,
minimizing manual reconciliation time and cost burdens;
- throttling mechanism that aligned data migration bandwidth load in
accordance with user-defined peak and non-peak traffic schedule to
minimize impact on information network performance; and
- migration based on exam date range allowed most recent exams to be
migrated first, which accelerated automatic prior exam availability.
The ability to integrate with the IMPAX solutions already in place at the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, and at the Malcolm Grow
Medical Center at Andrews Air Force Base, MD, was also part of the NNMC's
decision to switch to IMPAX. The IMPAX at NNMC will also be connected with
Agfa's PACS and CR (Computed Radiography) solution at the U.S. Capitol
Building in Washington, DC, where an imaging clinic administers to U.S.
senators, congressmen and congresswomen, and visitors to the U.S. Capitol
Building.
To top
|
|