HSS integrates dose monitoring

Healthcare Software Solutions, part of the Wellbeing Software Group, has integrated DoseMonitor, a dose monitoring product, into CRIS, its radiology information system.

HSS signed an agreement in 2013 with PACSHealth to be the UK’s exclusive distributor of DoseMonitor, a browser-based software application that automates dose data collection and reporting. It will be the first time a dose monitoring product has been integrated into a UK radiology system, HSS said.

Because it is integrated with CRIS, DoseMonitor helps to reduce the number of manual steps and input errors. It is able to alert users to potentially excessive radiation doses before additional exposure occurs. Radiology departments can use it to view historical exposure and to compare, aggregate and interpret data from ionising radiation sources for an individual patient, in a clinical study, between diagnostic modalities and units.

Dose monitoring is an increasingly important issue for NHS trusts. The UK has four years in which to implement a European directive on radiation protection, which requires radiation-producing medical equipment to be able to able to output radiation data in DICOM format. The Department of Health is setting up a working party to look into into what data is currently being collected by hospitals and to work with Public Health England on future population dose levels.

Marc Newman, HSS’s clinical business manager, said: “HSS’s new product portfolio guarantees radiology workflow and patient safety remain at the forefront of the UK’s largest RIS provider for years to come.”