Medical Imaging Mutualisation Project in France Takes a Big Step Forward

GENEVA, Switz., Feb 27 2015 ― In February 2014 the Groupement de Cooperation Sanitaire (GCS) TéléSanté Centre, based in north central France, commissioned Carestream Health France to provide a Carestream PACS solution for both public and private health facilities in the Region Centre to store, exchange and share medical imaging files (MIRC project).

The principal benefits expected from the MIRC project were to:

  • enable health professionals to have fast and easy access to earlier radiological examinations, regardless of where the consultation took place and thus promote continuity of care for patients;
  • optimise co-operation between health professionals;
  • establish a file of images for each patient at a regional level.

Only seven months after the finalisation of the framework agreement, the project has already developed a strong momentum, with eight institutions, both public and private, already subscribing to different services.

The immediate availability of the Carestream platform enabled early deployment at Tours University Hospital and CH Bourges where either PACS or archiving services are now fully operational. Two further sites in Châteauroux and Dreux are currently being established.

Preparatory work for the establishment of the ‘exchange and share’ service is progressing, with the dual objective of meeting the technical and organisational constraints of different sites and strictly respecting the existing legal framework.

“The maturity, availability and flexibility of our Cloud platform, operated for many years by Carestream, coupled with the experience gained during the installation of similar projects, allow us to make a rapid deployment of a PACS and archiving system without the need for a pilot phase,” said Christian Ducron, IT consultant at Carestream Health, France.

Vincent Marcé, Director of the GCS TéléSanté Centre said: “engagement and respect for the initial timing was, for us, one of the key elements of the project’s success. We are very satisfied with the work done to date and we will now be able to focus on the exchange and sharing of images which, at the regional level, was one of the main focuses of the MIRC project.”