Diagnostic imaging  

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.
 

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