Euromedic International
Creating an IT standard for the European landscape
There are huge differences in the quality of medical IT systems, particularly in some East European countries. However, recent political and economic changes in that region have been accompanied by improved quality standards. In Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bosnia, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Russia, Portugal, Ireland, Turkey and Switzerland, the privately funded group Euromedic International is one of the largest – and fastest growing – medical service providers, explained Jacek Zak, the Group’s IT Manager, who supervises its European IT development.
Euromedic operates in more than 200 diagnostic, laboratory, radiotherapy and renal care centres, and one of its core businesses is IT modernisation for radiology. When it comes to RIS/PACS infrastructures, standardisation is a big issue. ‘We’re working intensively on proper consolidation and integration of the IT systems, which is even more challenging because we are rapidly expanding in 11 countries,’ said Jacek Zak. ‘Of course, you have to consider the local requirements and the country-specific as well as centre-specific needs. The major difficulty is the fact that our clients are on very different levels with regard to radiology information systems (RIS). Some have worked with very early DOS-based RIS that did not support integration of a PACS. So, in the long run, we’ll try to implement a globally uniform IT structure in all our facilities that functions in a multi-user network.’ IT centralisation on a country-level is an important healthcare issue because it enables gathering patient data for an electronic patient record (EPR).
In June 2003, Euromedic began to install a standardised RIS from iSOFT in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Greece. The application, called iSOFT Radiology, is implemented on a central data base at the Euromedic headquarters in each country and spread to external centres (satellites) by using citrix technology. The system is available in different languages and equipped with a basic configuration and standard set-up provided by Euromedic. ‘By now we can integrate new centres that comply with all local reporting and statutory requirements in our transnational network,’ he pointed out. Today, 23 centres in Poland, Hungary, Romania and Switzerland profit from this standardised concept.
Euromedic is currently building a PACS in Hungary and Poland, which will be fully integrated into the existing iSOFT Radiology RIS. ‘We’ll finish the PACS integration in Hungary in mid-2010 and in Poland by the end of the year. After that we’ll be able to optimise the system and utilise all available functions. I also think we’ll be able to provide some teleradiology services with the help of the PACS in early 2011.’
The cooperation between Euromedic and iSOFT will continue with a new five-year project. In January 2010, Euromedic decided to integrate a new PACS in the existing iSOFT Radiology system in their acquired diagnostic centre in Budapest.
The biggest challenge now? ‘First, to get public funding for our projects,’ said Jacek Zak. ‘In the current situation it’s not easy to convince the funding agencies to proceed with quite expensive technical upgrades; but the use of modern IT to support the delivery of quick, efficient services to patients should be a priority.’
02.03.2010
