Agfa and Luxembourg hospitals cooperate for national VNA

Agfa HealthCare announces that it has signed a contract with the Fédération des Hôpitaux Luxembourgeois (FHL) for a national vendor-neutral archive (VNA) solution that will include all images from all departments of all hospitals in Luxembourg. The choice of Agfa HealthCare to supply the solution came after a two-year public procurement process (competitive dialogue), in which around ten companies grouped in joint ventures originally participated. The contract was awarded to Agfa HealthCare on the basis of five criteria including technical strengths of the proposed Enterprise Imaging platform.

A national electronic health record

Three years ago, as part of Luxembourg's strategy to enable integrated care across the healthcare sector, Agence eSanté implemented the eHealth Portal. One of the many purposes of this Portal is to establish a national electronic health record and to offer the possibility to exchange all of the patient's health-related information.

In this context, it was also foreseen to set up a shared image archive that would be linked with the Portal. The very competitive selection process included seven workshops and a Proof of Concept (POC). The companies that initially participated in the award procedure were reduced to three final contenders, with Agfa HealthCare ultimately winning the contract.

875,000 studies archived per year

Agfa HealthCare won the tender as part of a consortium with POST Luxembourg, supported by EMC. POST Luxembourg will establish and operate a dedicated data center; EMC will provide the hardware for the data center.

All 15 sites of the four hospital groups and specialized hospitals (Reeducation and Radiotherapy) are planned to be connected to the VNA. All new studies will be archived in the VNA, and each connected hospital will be able to access all images in the VNA, according to patient rights and confidentiality, including security requirements. In the first year, 875,000 new studies are expected to be archived. As each hospital is connected, the migration of its legacy image archives will begin - in total, some 300 TB of legacy data will be migrated.

Strong relationships in Luxembourg

Agfa HealthCare has a strong presence in Luxembourg, including 100% market share for Radiology Information System/Picture Archiving and Communication System (RIS/PACS) among the four Luxembourg hospital groups: Centre Hospitalier Emile Mayrish (CHEM), Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL), Hôpitaux Robert Schuman (HRS) and Centre Hospitalier du Nord (CHdN). Many of the hospitals already use the XERO Universal Viewer, while some additionally use Agfa HealthCare solutions including ORBIS, HYDMedia, etc.

"The very stringent tender process was a validation not only of the technical strength of the Enterprise Imaging platform, VNA and XERO Universal Viewer, but also of our ability to build and maintain strong relationships," comments Kristoff Reyntjens Sales Director, HE/Sales & Services Belux for Agfa HealthCare. "We are very pleased that Fédération des Hôpitaux Luxembourgeois and LUXITH (the shared ICT group for all hospitals in Luxembourg) chose us to support their long-term goal of 'better health, better healthcare, better value', which matches our own vision."

Source: Agfa HealthCare

22.09.2017

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