Another Brick in the Digital Wall for Multi-site Hospital

Name and location: Chirec, Brussels, Belgium

Challenge: A Fully Digitalized Hospital, to Better Serve Patients

Digitalization is a cornerstone of Chirec’s vision for the future, and a necessity to continue to support healthcare evolution. “This is what will allow us to provide better care for our patients, more efficiently, with fewer difficulties and fewer resources. It is a major transformation, and is changing the way we do medicine,” explained Denis Goldschmidt, M.D., surgeon and representative of the medical professionals to the IT department.

A digital environment is a great asset for Chirec’s radiologists as well, explained Thierry Roger, M.D., one of the heads of the radiology department. “They are often moving between one hospital and another, but they need to collaborate, to ask each other’s advice and to balance their workload. At the same time, like all radiology departments, we are constantly under pressure to speed up exams, provide results more quickly, optimize resources and control exam radiation dose. The watchword is ‘pas de rayon sans raison:’ no radiation without a reason!”

Solution: Images from Radiology and Beyond, Wherever They are Needed

The workgroup responsible for the hospital’s digital transformation knew a Web-based viewer would be an important part of this evolution. But the solution had to integrate perfectly with Chirec’s own EHR, called bDoc, and provide the fast access to all images, inside or outside the hospital, that clinicians and radiologists alike wanted. So the hospital implemented Agfa HealthCare’s ICIS View zero-footprint viewer technology into its IMPAX solution.

Designed to be easy to use, ICIS View is accessible from any popular web browser without requiring additional software download. It enables "anywhere, anytime" access to images, and provides secure access to standard healthcare data from existing workstations anywhere on the network. Extensive search, sort and filter functionalities help users find the right image fast. All of the radiologist’s markups and annotations are included, so the clinician sees the image the way the radiologist intended.

Benefits: A Step Toward a Complete View of the Patient's History

At Chirec, ICIS View was installed remotely overnight by Agfa HealthCare’s dedicated e-Health Services organization and required only some small configuration modifications. Now, it is supporting the radiology department in meeting its digital challenges. “It lets us really improve the service we provide to the hospital’s clinicians,” commented Roger. “Radiologists can, for example, check images from home when they are on call, without needing to come into the hospital. And the clinicians can see the image and the report immediately, side by side, which is what they want. So there is greater satisfaction.”

As Goldschmidt makes clear, though, ICIS View reaches far beyond the radiology department. “If we want to have a complete view of the patient’s history, we must be able to share non-radiologic images, as well. As a surgeon, for example, I take photos in the operating room, and in fact there are images coming from everywhere. ICIS View lets us see all our images, from any department, from any of our sites.”