Veterans Integrated Service Network 19 Implements System-Wide Radiation Dose Monitoring

December 4, 2018 — Agfa HealthCare announced it has collaborated in delivering a system-wide DoseMonitor automated software implementation, integrated with their IMPAX platform, to the Veterans Integrated Service Networks 19 (VISN 19). Contracts for DoseMonitor have already been awarded by VISN 21 and VISN 23.

VISN 19 spans a geographic area of 540,000 square miles across the states of Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma and portions of Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada and North Dakota. It is estimated that over 1 million veterans reside within the network's geographic boundaries. VISN 19 operates 8 healthcare systems (HCS), 2 hospitals and 123 additional sites of care.

In September 2018, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs issued an award effective Sept. 28, 2018 to Agfa HealthCare Corporation to implement PACSHealth's radiation dose monitoring system to multiple facilities in VISN 19. The system will help enable the network health system and member facilities to monitor patient radiation dose on a per-procedure and cumulative basis. The software provides fast enterprise-wide visibility into patient dose exposure for multiple modalities and reporting systems. Dashboards, alerts and notifications can be customized to individual facilities' preferences.

The dose tracking system includes the new Global Dose Registry feature, which allows users of DoseMonitor to access a global database with millions of anonymized studies from around the world. Parameters compared include:

• Volumetric computed tomography dose index (CTDIvol) Mean (mGy);
• Dose length product (DLP) (mGy.cm);
• Effective dose (mSv);
• Stationary CTDIvol(mGy); and
• Where applicable, delivered total contrast volume (ml).

VISN 19 and its individual facilities can easily compare local dose metrics (enterprise, facility, device, manufacturer, operator, patient, procedure, etc.) against the global registry in real time, replacing the time- and resource-consuming process of separate data collection and manual reporting.

For more information: www.agfahealthcare.com