Information technology, diagnostic imaging  

Fujitsu stores 100 millionth patient image in UK data centre

19 December 2006

London, UK. Fujitsu Services, has recorded the 100 millionth patient image stored in its southern England data centre as part of the rollout of picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) under the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

The 100 millionth image was stored by Weston Area Health NHS Trust. Fujitsu’s PACS data centre in the south of England was the first to be established within NPfIT and commenced storage of images and reports in April 2005.

As PACS is rolled out to hospitals across the country, medical images and reports are stored at each hospital and archived for future retrieval in the data centre. This facility allows radiologists to access images either via the PACS workstation for diagnostic reporting or via web browsers for general viewing by other clinicians.

Use of digital images avoids the need for film development processes and delivery by post or hand, and therefore significantly reduces costs in wet film processing and speeds up patient image acquisition workflows, diagnosis and therefore treatment. The number of images is set to grow at a rate of over 2 million per week as the use of PACS continues to increase.

Peter Hutchinson, managing director UK public sector, Fujitsu Services said: “100 million patient images stored is a real milestone and it illustrates the scale of deployment achieved by the new technology. The new system is good news for patients and clinical staff alike as it improves workflow efficiency in hospitals and delivers tangible savings for the NHS as well. This is a clear demonstration of a Government IT programme being delivered on time and to budget”.

“83% of all PACS systems are now live in NHS Trusts in the South of England which are part of the National Programme and all are now using PACS deployed by Fujitsu. Work is already underway at the remaining Trusts, which will go live in the coming months.”

Simon Eccles, a national clinical lead for NHS Connecting for Health said: "Congratulations to Fujitsu for this fantastic achievement. An end to lost X-rays and the ability to find images wherever and whenever they are needed helps patients and NHS staff alike. Clinicians are happier and patients are safer and getting better care."

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