Cardiff sticks with Agfa HealthCare

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board has upgraded its picture archiving and communications system through a four-year contract extension with Agfa HealthCare.

The extension runs until 2015 and will include a complete refresh of all equipment, including backend architecture.

Andy Thomas, radiology services manager at the trust said: “We wanted to continue to benefit from the investment that we have placed in our PACS solution over the last 11 years, rather than take the risk of a replacement."

The board has been working with Agfa since 2000. The latest refresh will see it implement Agfa’s IMPAX 6.4 PACS, which will run alongside RADIS radiology information systems.

The trusts's PACS and RIS are implemented across nine hospitals, used by 3,000 members of staff, and create 44 million images annually from 500,000 radiology examinations a year.

Grant Witheridge, general manager of Agfa HealthCare UK, said: “We are delighted that [the health board has] chosen to remain with Agfa against a competitive market, including national radiology initiatives across Wales.

“The contract extension and technology refresh continues to provide benefits and allows the board to deliver the highest quality imaging services, whilst increasing performance and reducing costs.”

The refresh went live in November 2011, and it’s set to be completed by the end of this month.