VU University Medical Center Amsterdam, Netherlands, realizes its vision for Enterprise Imaging with Agfa HealthCare

- Agfa HealthCare’s expertise in image management, and in integration and data migration were key to the success of the project. - Includes imaging data in any format (DICOM/non-DICOM, photos, videos,…) and from any department such as ophthalmology, urology, radiology, cardiology, surgery, gynaecology and more. - All images are being stored centrally in the VNA, for fast access. - The XERO Viewer enables access to images “anywhere, anytime”, for any patient.

Agfa HealthCare announces today that the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam (VUmc) has gone live with its Enterprise Imaging solution, in a unique A to Z project that comprises management of all imaging data, from any source. This is the first large-scale Enterprise Imaging project for Agfa HealthCare in the Netherlands. Seven departments are already connected, with roll-out continuing for an additional 20.

Uniformity of worklow for image retrieval
VUmc is a university medical center in Amsterdam with 7,000 staff members and some 750 beds spread across several interconnected buildings. The hospital had a very detailed vision for implementing Enterprise Imaging across 27 different departments, and chose Agfa HealthCare as its solution provider. Agfa HealthCare’s role was not only to provide the solution’s components, but also to jointly design the architecture tailored to the hospital’s vision and to integrate the solution with the center’s existing system.

Data migration is a key part of the project, going beyond simple migration to include unification and standardization (in respect to patient ID, procedure description, etc.) This allows a uniform workflow for image retrieval and uniform integration into the third-party electronic medical record (EMR).

Fast “anywhere, anytime” retrieval of images
All images are centrally stored in the Agfa HealthCare vendor neutral archive (VNA), where they are available for fast retrieval. Also the images from the third-party picture archiving and communication system (PACS) are being sent directly to the VNA.

The XERO zero-footprint viewer, combined with the VNA, is making VUmc’s images, from any original source, accessible anywhere, anytime, using a single viewer that is integrated in the EMR. Currently there are already 4000+ XERO users.

Different workflows are supported, to provide very easy image storage and retrieval of both radiology and non-radiology imaging data. This enables images to be stored and accessible in a uniform way with a workflow that is transparent and simple for all end-users.

Integration of third party systems
“The ability to integrate the Agfa HealthCare imaging solutions with our EMR and other systems was critical for our project: our philosophy was ‘integration, not phasing-out, of the existing systems’,” comments Ernest van Beckhoven of VUmc. “Agfa HealthCare’s expertise and knowledge played a key role in the smooth, successful development and the go-live of this project. We were very pleased that they had both the solutions and the capability to support us in realizing our vision.”

“This project was an excellent opportunity to show that Agfa HealthCare can not only implement a PACS, or a VNA, or a Viewer, or an Enterprise Imaging system, but that we can create a complete solution, tailored to the customer’s vision,” comments Hans Vandewyngaerde, President EMEA , Agfa HealthCare. “Since the go-live, we have seen the number of users increase very swiftly, which highlights their satisfaction, whether in traditional image-creating departments or anywhere else in the care continuum. At the same time, we learned a lot from this project about how to flexibly configure our solution to the customer’s needs; and that is an insight that will benefit other customers far outside of the scope of this one project!”