Victoria’s Largest Health Service Purchases Carestream’s Vue RIS, PACS and Archive to Help Achieve Better Patient Outcomes
ROCHESTER, N.Y. and AUSTRALIA, Feb. 25 —Monash Health has signed a landmark deal to purchase Carestream’s Vue RIS,Vue PACS, Vue for Vendor Neutral Archive, Vue Beyond,Vue Motion and MyVue solutions. After a thorough review of competitive offerings, Monash Health concluded that Carestream’s systems would best serve the needs of their four large public hospitals and rehabilitation centre.
“We performed a comprehensive review of the marketplace and to us, Carestream offered standout products in terms of functionality, ease of use, configurability and vision. We expect increases in radiologist productivity, including voice recognition, along with a product that will be fun to use. The flexible nature of the database will enable us to shift from a generalist to subspecialty method of reporting. We were also impressed with the positive comments from Carestream sites we visited internationally,” said Associate Professor Ronnie Ptasznik, Deputy Director Diagnostic Imaging, Monash Health.
Monash Health cited parallel organisational vision as a key factor in considering Carestream as the stand-out offering for an enterprise solution. This shared vision of future product direction enables Monash Health to take advantage of Carestream’s market-leading technologies today and capitalise on the future direction of the Vue portfolio.
Carestream’s reputation for engaging with customers in their research and development process was another key determinant for Monash Health. “The flexibility of the Carestream offering ensures that our current needs are met while also providing a clear path for us to continue to build on the solution as needed,” said Tony Gabbert, Operations Manager at Monash Health. “This, coupled with Carestream’s continued release of new updates, allows us to be comfortable in the knowledge that we are collaborating with a company that shares our forward-thinking vision.”
Carestream’s functionality also incorporated two key risk management features: discrepancy reporting to aid in the review process and a critical results alert feature. The inclusion of these tools was a key evaluation point for Associate Professor Ptasznik and his team. Carestream also provides a native 3D PACS application that allows physicians to instantly switch from standard 2D image review to 3D models helps streamline and enhance diagnostic efficacy. Ultimately Carestream’s unique ability to provide an all-encompassing solution to support Monash Health in their quest to set a benchmark for treatment and research facilities in Australia made Carestream an ideal fit.
“The ability to perform a multiplanar assessment in real-time without opening a separate application is a good example of Carestream’s vision. The built-in decision support can help decrease overall patient radiation across our network, while discrepancy and critical results reporting can help enhance patient safety,” commented Associate Professor Ptasznik.
The solution, to be implemented during 2014, will see many aspects of Carestream’s radiology portfolio incorporated into Monash Health five sites, including Carestream’s lesion management software that provides semi-automatic segmentation and measurement and tracking tools that will allow for greater accuracy and increased patient outcomes, as well as positively impacting workflow.
Another aspect of Monash Health’s requirement for its system was to provide radiologists and referrers with an efficient reading viewing and workflow from any location, including their homes or offices. The introduction of Carestream Vue Motion not only meets that need directly but also will make a substantial difference to how images are viewed and assessed. This FDA-cleared, zero-footprint technology capitalises on mobile device proliferation, with over 85 percent of medical practitioners in Australia owning and using a mobile device. Images can be easily accessed via iPad with a simple login and practioners can immediately view images and reports. This instant access to images and patient information allows for timely critical image review—anywhere, anytime.
“We are excited to partner with Monash Health to provide our leading healthcare IT solutions to assist in their continued vision to provide better health in the community,” said Melissa Wood, General Manager Australia and New Zealand, Carestream. “Our solution will allow for increased productivity, access and workflow for both radiologists and referrers, which can promote enhanced patient care through timely review and treatment. We look forward to working with Monash both now and in the future as we continue to broaden our healthcare IT offerings.”
Monash Health continues to grow its portfolio of leading imaging technologies with the addition of this enterprise solution, adding to the suite of Carestream radiology imaging systems over the five Monash Health sites, including: CARESTREAM DRX-Revolution Mobile X-ray Systems, CARESTREAM DRX-Evolution DR Rooms, CARESTREAM DRX-1 Systems, DRX- Mobile Retrofit Kits, DRX-2530C small format detector, as well as CR and film systems.
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About Monash Health
Monash Health is the largest public health supplier in the state of Victoria, Australia. It services a population of over 1.32 million in Melbourne’s South Eastern suburbs. Monash Health provide 2.06 million episodes of care and conduct over 300,000 exams each year, supplying health care services that encompass the entire lifespan – from pre-birth to palliative care over their five sites. For more information, please visit www.monashhealth.org.