MDHB to spend $3.6 million on Digital Radiology Equipment

22/11/07 | Radiology Equipment

MidCentral District Health Board has approved a project worth about $3.6 million which will see its aging analogue imaging technology replaced with state of the art digital equipment.

On Tuesday the board approved spending the capital funds on the new technology called radiology information system/picture archiving and communication system (RIS/PACS). It is part of an overall upgrade of its technology infrastructure announced earlier in its Information Systems Strategic Plan.

Information technology is becoming an essential tool for the delivery of fast, high quality and cost effective health care, integral to the patient’s journey through the health care system.

The implementation of RIS/PACS from Carestream Health (formally Kodak) will provide MidCentral District Health Board with the opportunity to improve the quality and efficiency of the imaging service. For example, patients will experience less delays, shorter examination times and reports will be delivered to their doctors faster.

RIS stands for Radiology Information System and it stores information such as patient information (e.g. name, date of birth etc.) as well as information on a patient’s examinations, including date and time of examination, and where the exam was performed.

PACS stands for Picture Archiving and Communications System and it holds the images taken by the x-rays machines.

Ten other district health boards have installed PACS systems, and another five are developing business cases or are commencing implementation planning for similar systems.

The next step will be to set up the project team to develop the implementation plan. MidCentral anticipates that the system will be fully operational during the later part of 2008.