LINKÖPING, Sweden, Aug. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- International
medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company
Sectra (STO: SECT B) has signed a
contract for a region-wide multimedia archive as a cloud service
with SWASH, a British consortium of NHS trusts. It is the second
contract between Sectra and SWASH this year and is expected to
advance how hospitals share and access important diagnostic
imaging. A new shared multimedia archive will also allow the trusts
to accelerate ambitions for initiatives including artificial
intelligence.
SWASH includes the NHS trusts: Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust,
Isle of Wight NHS Trust, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, Southern
Health NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospital Southampton NHS
Foundation Trust.
Under the new arrangement, signed in August 2020, the trusts will move from an
existing vendor-neutral archive (VNA) to Sectra's VNA to store
imaging for the region.
"Moving to Sectra's VNA will be a big win. We will be able to
administer, store and make available millions of images, of
different types and from different disciplines, from hospitals
across our region, all in a single place without the burden of
having to manage infrastructure," says Mark
Gardner, PACS manager at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust.
The arrangement will alleviate traditional burdens placed on
trusts, freeing up significant resource and equipment from trusts'
computer rooms, for which they have historically been individually
responsible.
Sectra will use its cloud to securely store the region-wide
archive, and to host the existing solution for handling radiology
images (PACS) - a tool already used by radiology professionals in
the consortium to interrogate diagnostic images. This follows
an announcement earlier in 2020, that SWASH had signed an
eight-year contract with Sectra that would see a single instance of
its radiology imaging solution delivered across all of the trusts,
removing technical complexity previously required to support a
single view of patient imaging across the region.
It is hoped that the latest agreement will take regional working
to the next level and allow imaging to easily be shared with
hospitals outside the consortium.
Dr. Mark Griffiths, paediatric
radiologist and clinical lead for the SWASH consortium, says:
"Linking with other regions is an important next step. Our strategy
is to improve our visualization of the whole patient pathway within
SWASH and beyond. Using a standard for cross-community sharing will
help us to better connect with other regional consortia. That will
be a game changer - to not just see local imaging, but to
understand imaging has occurred for patients who move across
borders and services, and to be able to access that imaging myself
as a clinician, without needing to ask someone else who might not
be in the office at the time."
Having access to imaging in the new VNA is also expected to help
the consortium make use of emerging artificial intelligence
applications.
"This creates a wealth of data for purposes such as AI," says
Dr. Griffiths. "Data for training algorithms needs to be
appropriate and validated - and we won't simply be throwing data at
AI, but by having collective data source as a consortia, we can use
our size to help with the validation and governance around using
AI. And we anticipate that Sectra will provide multiple inputs from
smaller AI suppliers, that will make it much easier for NHS trusts
within a consortia to utilize them."
"SWASH is one of our longest standing partners, and we are proud
to continue to provide the tools to advance their imaging
strategies that are ultimately focused on delivering better patient
outcomes. Work here is genuinely world class as a demonstrative
example of exceptional regional collaboration in diagnostics," says
Jane Rendall, Managing Director UK
and Ireland at Sectra.
The solution SWASH has purchased is part of Sectra's offering for
enterprise imaging, which provides a unified strategy for all
imaging needs while lowering operational costs. The scalable and
modular solution, with a VNA at its core, allows healthcare
providers to grow from ology to ology and from enterprise to
enterprise. Read more about Sectra's enterprise imaging solution
and why Sectra PACS is "Best in KLAS" at medical.sectra.com.
About Sectra
Sectra assists hospitals throughout the world to enhance the
efficiency of care, and authorities and defense forces in
Europe to protect society's most
sensitive information. Thereby, Sectra contributes to a healthier
and safer society. The company was founded in 1978, has its head
office in Linköping, Sweden, with
direct sales in 19 countries, and operates through partners
worldwide. Sales in the 2019/2020 fiscal year totaled SEK 1,661 million. The Sectra share is quoted on
the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange. For more information, visit
sectra.com.
For further information, please contact:
Dr. Torbjörn Kronander, CEO and President Sectra AB, +46 (0)705 23
52 27
Marie Ekström Trägårdh, Executive Vice President Sectra AB and
President Sectra Imaging IT Solutions, +46 (0)708 23 56 10
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Sectra's solution for
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