Medical Imaging Platform Combines Workflow, Image Management, and Enhances Productivity

A next-generation imaging platform is designed to achieve clinical productivity and improve cost-effectiveness. It uses a single data model to provide a system that offers relevant and diverse clinical data in one, entirely unified imaging management platform.

Agfa HealthCare’s (Mortsel, Belgium) Impax Agility solution, a next-generation medical imaging platform that truly combines workflow, image management, reporting, and clinical applications into one system, has now been successfully launched in multiple countries worldwide. It is being installed or has gone live in over 125 hospitals.

Impax Agility’s sophisticated graphic user interface (GUI) provides users a streamlined intuitive user experience, as well as native diagnostic capabilities, streamlined navigation and workflow, and improve clinical productivity. Its up-to-date information technology (IT) platform helps hospitals to optimize performance and to keep costs in line, by reducing overhead, upgrade time, and IT infrastructure investments. The platform has been enhanced for 64-bit parallel processing, and uses conventional components and technologies, streamlining system integration.

Sectional reporting increases consistency and decreases report turnaround time. Text entry, digital dictation, transcription, and speech capabilities are fully embedded for a seamless workflow that provides users with unbridled access to images and fast turn-around of structured, easy-to-read reports. By orchestrating more of the workflow, improving communication and collaboration between users, and providing results consistently and clearly, Impax Agility helps improve quality of care and lets users manage more of their clinical information on a single solution.

“Sectional reporting enhances the value of the reports,” stated Dr. Logan, chief radiologist and director of medical imaging, Southern Ohio Medical Center (Portsmouth, OH, USA), “By standardizing how the information is presented, it saves time for the radiologist creating the report, while offering enough customizability to be flexible.”

Agfa HealthCare has signed contracts to implement the system in multiple countries around Latin America. Eighty hospitals in Brazil will have the solution, and several have already gone live. The Manaus “Amazon” project is bringing Impax Agility to 61 remote hospitals. Eighteen hospitals in Mexico, 5 in Colombia, 17 in Paraguay (including one national project), and 1 in Ecuador are also in the process of installing the solution.

Following a successful introduction in Europe, United States users also appreciate the system. “Some of the Impax Agility customers are already Agfa HealthCare customers—for direct radiography [DR], computed radiography [CR], radiology information system [RIS], etc.—while others are new customers,” commented James Jay, vice president imaging IT solutions at Agfa HealthCare. “This innovative and agile imaging informatics solution is not only helping us to strengthen existing relationships, but also to create new ones.”

Impax Agility supports sites that perform between 10,000 and 350,000 exams yearly. Moreover, it can be installed in sites that are new to picture archiving and communication system (PACS) technology.

Dr. Alexandre Oksman, radiologist at IGESP (Sao Paulo, Brazil), emphasized how the platform allows the user to collect more data from earlier exams and thereby improves the quality of the report. “It has been a complete and radical change. The system allows us to integrate image visualization, report creation, and image storage. With the worklists we can track the patient’s procedures and submit exams to specific radiologists, for a much more efficient, yet secure and targeted flow of reports amongst the specialists.”

“The solution has enabled us to improve our service and increase productivity,” commented Dr. Geert Biebau, head of radiology and medical director of Belgium’s Sint-Rembert General Hospital (Torhout, Belgium). “With Impax Agility we can cope with the challenge of increasingly complex imaging and software developments, such as cardio- or angio-CT [computed tomography], which can be easily integrated. We are convinced Agfa HealthCare will be our partner on our path to the future of medical imaging.”

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