Agfa HealthCare awarded new contract with Novation for Direct Radiography

Agfa HealthCare announces today that it has been awarded a new three-year contract with Novation, a leading healthcare supply contracting company, to provide Digital Radiography systems to more than 30,000 VHA, UHC and Provista member organizations in the United States. The DX-D 500n overhead tube crane digital X-ray room, the DX-D 300 digital U-arm, and the DX-D 100 digital mobile X-ray system are all included in the contract. VHA, UHC and Provista members can thus select high-quality Direct Radiography (DR) imaging systems from Agfa HealthCare's wide range, based on their own needs.

"Agfa HealthCare is dedicated to continually enhancing our comprehensive DR portfolio and providing healthcare facilities with a range of solutions that enables them to efficiently acquire the high-quality images they need," said Ray Russell, General Manager, Radiology Solutions Business, Agfa HealthCare U.S. "We are pleased to be able to expand the reach of our DR products to the members Novation serves, and to provide them top-quality solutions that will ultimately help them to improve the quality of care provided."

Each system comes with Agfa HealthCare's NX workstation, which enables technologists to quickly and efficiently acquire images and complete the exam. With its intuitive user interface, NX requires minimal training while offering maximum convenience.

Each DR solution includes MUSICA2, Agfa HealthCare's 'gold standard' image processing software for excellent image quality, which makes use of the company's established NX platform for a smooth workflow. MUSICA2 automatically analyzes the characteristics of each image and optimizes the processing parameters - independent of user input and dose settings. MUSICA2 is unaffected by the presence of collimation or direct X-ray backgrounds in the image, leading to consistent, high-quality results. The software can also improve the overall visibility of clinically relevant structures, making particularly low-contrast details more easily perceptible. Moreover, Agfa HealthCare's DR solutions offer Cesium Iodide (CsI) technology for high-quality imaging with the potential for patient dose reduction, and Gadolinium Oxy-Sulphide (GOS) detectors.

This contract, effective September 1, 2011, is the latest in a series of agreements between Agfa HealthCare and Novation and its member facilities, dating back to 2006. Agfa HealthCare also has Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) and Computed Radiography (CR) contracts with Novation.