January 29, 2009 - Ochsner Health System of New Orleans has deployed Agfa Healthcare’s IMPAX Data Center for image management and storage across its seven hospitals and 35 clinics.
Ochsner selected IMPAX Data Center in 2008 to consolidate data from disparate multi-vendor PACS and clinical systems onto a single point of storage. The solution supports all types of DICOM 3.0 medical images and diagnostic results including DICOM-encapsulated images, reports, waveforms and .pdfs. Reportedly, highly scalable, IMPAX Data Center is designed to store and make accessible clinical data, consolidating information from multiple clinical departments and PACS vendors.
Before the IMPAX Data Center was installed, Ochsner needed to consolidate imaging data from multiple vendor PACS solutions in separate locations and departments, including images from radiology, cardiology, obstetrics, ophthalmology and endoscopy systems.
"Agfa HealthCare's IMPAX Data Center provides clinicians with easy access to our medical imaging data from anywhere in the hospital enterprise, regardless of originating department or hospital facility," said Lynn Witherspoon, M.D., system vice president and chief information officer of Ochsner Health System. "By providing access to the most current data from across the entire Ochsner system, it gives our clinicians a complete longitudinal view of the patient imaging record. Today IMPAX Data Center makes imaging information available to physicians using a single query, while allowing hospitals and clinics to keep their existing PACS and imaging solutions in place."
The IMPAX Data Center is delivered in a fault tolerant configuration that protects against a single point of system failure. The Data Center is also said to feature a high availability design, continuously monitoring itself for optimal system reliability and uptime. Ochsner installed a mirror data center at a remote location to enable continuous access to systems and data in the event of a disaster. "We've experienced many severe weather-related disasters in southeast Louisiana and we understand how crucial it is to maintain access to patient images and information in the event of an emergency," Dr. Witherspoon said. "This configuration of the IMPAX Data Center provides us with a complete copy of all image data, located at a distance from our primary data center but attached to our wide area network, thus allowing continuous data access in the event of loss of the primary archive."
For more information: www.agfa.com/healthcare
February 15, 2024 
