Press release  RSNA (South Hall A #3339) / Chicago, Illinois, US  November 27, 2006
Agfa HealthCare, a leader in healthcare informatics, today announces that it has concluded negotiations with the Réseau Universitaire Intégré de Santé (RUIS) Laval and RUIS Sherbrooke regions of Quebec, Canada, for the implementation of its IMPAX™ PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) and diagnostic imaging repository (DI-r) solutions. The contract negotiations included the precise planning, configuration and timing of the two large-scale projects. The agreements, which are worth in excess of EUR 40 million / CAD 60 million and include a five year plan for support and an option for two additional years, are expected to be signed by year end with implementation of each region’s two mirrored DI-r solutions starting early in 2007.

The implementation for RUIS Laval, which will see Agfa HealthCare's IMPAX PACS installed locally at 51 sites along with a large-scale regional image repository, will acquire, store and manage approximately 2.3 million patient exams per year; making it one of the largest regional PACS installations in Canada. The regional PACS solution will allow RUIS Laval to optimize limited radiologist resources to provide the highest levels of care for both urban and rural populations. The deployment of the mirrored DI-r and local PACS solutions for RUIS Laval is expected to last 30 months.

Every hospital in the region will have its own local PACS connected to its own modalities and information systems. Each local PACS will then store a copy of every exam to the regional DI-r for permanent storage and to allow other healthcare providers to easily access a patient's exam history, regardless of where they were acquired.

The project for RUIS Sherbrooke will see Agfa HealthCare's DI-r solution implemented to provide permanent storage and regional exam access for the existing PACS solutions installed in the region's 15 hospital sites. Approximately 1.1 million exams are generated in RUIS Sherbrooke each year. The selection of the Agfa HealthCare DI-r highlights the interoperability and connectivity strengths of the solution, since the local PACS solutions are provided by two other vendors. The deployment of RUIS Sherbrooke's mirrored DI-r solution will begin early in 2007 and is expected to last 3 months.

"We are very proud to be working with such innovative and forward thinking customers. The benefits that our solution will bring will ultimately help improve healthcare across the RUIS Laval and RUIS Sherbrooke regions of Quebec" said Michael Green, General Manager HealthCare Canada.

Contacts:

Werner Vandevelde
Global MarCom Leader IT solutions HealthCare
Septestraat 27
2640 Mortsel - Belgium
tel:+32 (0)3 444 80 04
fax:+32 (0)3 444 72 85
werner.vandevelde@agfa.com 

Johan Jacobs
Corporate Press Relations Manager
Septestraat 27
2640 Mortsel - Belgium
tel:+32 (0)3 444 80 15
fax:+32 (0)3 444 50 05
johan.jacobs@agfa.com

Jason Knox
Marketing Manager Agfa HealthCare
77 Belfield Road
M9W 1G6 Toronto, ON
tel:+1 (0)416 241 41 51
fax:+1 (0)416 241 54 09
jason.knox@agfa.com