HeiligHart hospital in Belgium, AGFA HealthCare long-term customer, will deploy the latest Enterprise Imaging solution for Radiology, including a hospital-wide VNA and the XERO Universal Viewer, in the Microsoft’s Azure public Cloud platform, to support both current and future image management needs

HeiligHart hospital, in Lier, Belgium, has decided to upgrade from its AGFA HealthCare IMPAX picture archiving and communication system (PACS) to Enterprise Imaging (EI) for Radiology – all in the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. This solution will enhance user experience, optimize tasks and improve productivity for radiology by leveraging the powerful rules-based workflow automation engine, embedded structured reporting, smart hanging protocols, advanced clinical applications, and more.

The Cloud agreement also includes the Enterprise Imaging VNA and XERO Universal Viewer for image management and visualisation of all affiliated hospital images, as well as a seven-year managed services contract.

Enterprise Imaging: functionality, reputation and relationship

HeiligHart Lier is a regional hospital with the capability and resources to treat most diseases. It works together with care networks to guarantee the quality and continuity of care, operating with over a thousand staff members and treating nearly 70,000 patients each year.

Dr. Rodrigo Salgado, Head of Radiology Department at HeiligHart hospital, explains the decision to deploy AGFA HealthCare Enterprise Imaging: “The PACS landscape has evolved a lot over the past decade. We want to be ready for the future, including for the possibilities of new technologies such as AI. Enterprise Imaging offers the functionality we need. It is stable, fast and has a good reputation, and we have spoken with radiologists at other hospitals who shared their positive experiences with both the functionality and performance of Enterprise Imaging. Finally, Agfa HealthCare has been our PACS partner for many years, and we trust them to support us in making a smooth transition.”

“That’s life in flow”: a smooth, pleasant work experience for radiologists

For the radiologists at the hospital, the consolidated Enterprise Imaging platform offers clear benefits that allow them to focus on their tasks with fewer distractions.

“Enterprise Imaging will enable us to do the bulk of our day-to-day work without switching between different systems, saving time and enhancing productivity. Structured reporting makes creating reports fast and flexible. The ability to include links to images in the reports will increase the satisfaction of referring physicians, and help them better understand the radiologists’ conclusions. Furthermore, the possibility to add augmented intelligence offers further workflow optimization and productivity opportunities,” says Dr. Rodrigo Salgado.

The agreement for the Cloud-deployed Enterprise Imaging for Radiology includes the Enterprise Imaging platform, the XERO Universal Viewer, which will be integrated with the hospital’s electronic medical record (EMR), and a cloud-deployed Enterprise Imaging VNA that work as a single seamless platform. The XERO Univeral Viewer offers clinicians anywhere, anytime access to patient images, whilst the VNA simplifies the IT landscape and enhances fast access to multispecialty images from supported image-producing departments, stored in one place.

The advantages of Cloud: managed IT infrastructure planning and security, lightweight business continuity and harmonized IT administration

Implementing Enterprise Imaging and the VNA in the Cloud offers a number of practical advantages for the hospital: decreased IT burdens with a harmonized in-house IT administration, improved security and stability, more scalability and expansion, and enhanced image access and sharing.

Erik Kerkhofs, Director Commercial Partner in Belgium & Luxembourg for Microsoft explains: “It’s great to see AGFA HealthCare leverage Microsoft Azure, the most comprehensive and trusted cloud, to provide their Enterprise Imaging Platform to the Heilig Hart hospital.This solution will contribute to delivering a better experience for the medical staff and ultimately improve service to patients.”

Dr. Salgado adds: “We have already deployed other projects in the Cloud, so our IT department is familiar with Cloud solutions, and our partners assured us that Enterprise Imaging in the Cloud will deliver high performance.”

Ann Deroose, Sales Director Benelux for Agfa HealthCare, comments: “Good communications with Cloud provider Microsoft also played an important role in HeiligHart hospital’s choice to transition to Enterprise Imaging. Firstly, we were able to deliver very clear and transparent cost calculations, and in addition, our teamwork, our structured approach, and our precision about ‘who would do what’ in the project ensured that this long-term customer knew that they could trust us for this transition. We are delighted to continue our partnership with HeiligHart hospital, and proud to have been chosen for the next part of their image management journey.”

About AGFA HealthCare

AGFA HealthCare is transforming the role of medical imaging into a high-impact, data driven enterprise-wide information flow – supporting health professionals across the globe with secure and scalable imaging data management. The company’s mission is to provide the solutions and guiding experience to help clients improve productivity, manage resource allocation, mitigate complexity and redundant technologies, while providing clinical confidence with readily available patient-centric information.

The company’s preeminent product, the Enterprise Imaging platform, creates an Imaging Health Record™, or IHR, to align with and fulfill a health system’s EHR/digital transformation strategy.  The IHR provides an unobstructed flow of patient imaging information to help care providers achieve their clinical, operational, and business strategies.

Agfa HealthCare is a division of the Agfa-Gevaert Group which is headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium and traded on Euronext Brussels (AGFB).

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On the photo: from left to right
Dr. Rodrigo Salgado – Head of Radiology Department, HeiligHart hospital Lier
Raf Jacobs – Senior Key Account Manager, Agfa HealthCare
Wesley Staal – Pre-sales Consultant, Agfa HealthCare
Cindy Pieters – Project Leader, HeiligHart hospital Lier
Ann Deckers – Project Manager, Agfa HealthCare