ASZ Hospital in Belgium Chooses Carestream As New PACS Vendor

GENEVA, Switz., October 17―Algemeen Stedelijk Ziekenhuis Aalst (ASZ) in Flanders, Belgium has signed a seven-year, multi-million-euro contract for CARESTREAM Vue Cloud Services and becomes the first hospital in Belgium to choose this unique “Software-as-a-Service” (SaaS) model. Installation is scheduled for early 2012.

The comprehensive deal includes a new generation onsite CARESTREAM Vue PACS with native reporting and speech recognition; cloud archive for all radiology studies delivered from the Carestream regional data centre plus a 40 TB legacy archive which will also be accessible from the Vue Cloud Portal on the Internet.

The 600-bed ASZ is a large hospital group in Belgium operating across three sites located in Aalst, Wetteren and Geraardsbergen, managing more than 320,000 studies annually. The deal also includes PACS services for a related hospital in Oudenaarde.

“We changed vendor to Carestream because they offered the latest state-of-the-art technology in terms of PACS capability and vendor neutral archiving,” said Dr. Van Hedent, Chief Radiologist of the ASZ. “With the new system we will enjoy the best native post processing on the market and also embedded reporting tools with speech recognition and remote access. Mr. Brantegem, Finance Manager of the group was very much attracted by the pay-per-study model. It provides total transparency of use and a predictable TCO, reducing the need to maintain and upgrade our infrastructure.”

CARESTREAM Vue PACS delivers full PACS functionality for image review, storage and distribution throughout the enterprise including delivering advanced reading tools to remote radiologists. Vue Archive Services offer virtualised, vendor neutral long term storage as well as data protection and disaster recovery of clinical data and can reduce costs by up to 30 per cent. The Vue eHealth Portal enables healthcare providers that use the company’s archive service to allow access to that data by authorised clinicians anywhere in the world through a simple Internet connection, making it ideal for inter-hospital collaboration.

“The growing volume, complexity and cost of medical data is leading many healthcare organisations, like ASZ, to consider Cloud-based archiving, said Ignace Wautier, Country Manager for Belgium and Luxembourg, Carestream Health. “These services deliver secure storage that enable healthcare practitioners to enhance productivity and patient care, while reducing costs and capital investments.”

Carestream Health is one of the world’s premier providers of large Cloud-based healthcare IT infrastructures. The company currently manages over a billion imaging studies worldwide, supported by data centres across the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Japan.

Vue is the new brand for the company’s comprehensive healthcare IT platform that includes radiology, cardiology, enterprise workflow, vendor neutral archiving and cloud-based services. Vue merges Carestream Health’s lineage of imaging innovation with leading-edge IT technology. With thousands of proven implementations worldwide, Vue healthcare IT solutions deliver streamlined workflow, clinical excellence and superior patient care.

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About Carestream Health
Carestream Health is a worldwide provider of dental and medical imaging systems and healthcare IT solutions; molecular imaging systems for life science research and drug discovery/development; x-ray film and digital x-ray systems for non-destructive testing; and advanced materials for the precision films and electronics markets.

For more information about the company’s broad portfolio of products, solutions and services, please contact your Carestream Health representative or visit .www.carestream.com.

CARESTREAM is a trademark of Carestream Health.
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