Carestream chosen for Israel-wide RIS-PACS

Carestream Health has been awarded a €19.4m ($25m) country-wide contract for a RIS-PACS project across Israel’s Clalit Health Services.

The Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS), and Radiology Information System (RIS) and central archiving solution will be deployed across all Clalit’s hospitals and imaging centers in Israel.

Clalit Health Services is a health management organisation (HMO) providing care through a nationwide network of 14 hospitals, 39 imaging centers, 1,400 clinics, 400 pharmacies, 37 children’s health centers and 32 women’s health centers.

Implementation will be carried out by Algotec, a fully owned subsidiary of Carestream Health, and will eventually provide more than 1,400 sites with access to the system. Implementation is scheduled to begin in early 2009.

At Clalit, the PACS, RIS and central archiving solution will manage more than five million procedures annually. The ability to centrally manage patient information at such magnitude, while simultaneously allowing real-time access from anywhere.

“The system allows advanced communication between physicians and patients, thereby improving our quality of care,” Eli Defes, CEO of Clalit Health Services said in a statement. “Clinicians receive all relevant patient information at their desktop, allowing for faster, more accurate diagnosis.”

Dr Ziv Rosenbaum, director of the medical technology centre for Clalit, added: "As the second largest HMO worldwide, Clalit was looking for a multi-site, multi-domain enterprise imaging management solution. We needed patient-centric imaging records and enterprise level workflow management.”

Carestream Health’s PACS, RIS and associated information management system enable the storing, processing, distribution and viewing of medical images, reports and related data. The system also provides advanced imaging tools for orthopedic, mammography, cardiology and oncology applications.

“The integrated RIS/PACS architecture will enable information to flow smoothly among caregivers,” said Elad Benjamin, general manager, Healthcare Information Solutions, Carestream Health. “With information managed seamlessly across multiple sites, the system provides clinicians a single, integrated toolset for diagnosis – regardless of their location.”