Homerton Healthcare signs deal with Sectra for enterprise imaging

Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is moving its enterprise imaging to the cloud in order to provide faster and more efficient diagnostics.

The trust has signed a deal with Sectra to provide enterprise imaging as a fully managed cloud service. It means Homerton Healthcare clinicians will gain access to all of the content and tools required to organise, prioritise and streamline imaging workflows in a single application. This will eliminate the need to use multiple applications during reading and reporting to streamline the process.

The solution will also make it easier for Homerton Healthcare to collaborate with other NHS trusts using the same system.

The contract means Sectra will take over responsibility for all hardware, software and other IT components, allowing the trust to focus its attention on its core goal of fast and efficient care.

Homerton’s director of IT and systems, Niall Canavan, said: “Having our new imaging solution as a fully managed cloud service will allow us to shift the focus of our IT staff. Our team will be relieved of IT management responsibilities, which will be a significant benefit.

“We also expect to see clinical benefits, such as faster access to new features and new technology. Moving to a scalable cloud solution furthers our ambitions for a consolidated cloud system supporting all hospitals in our ICS (Integrated Care System) and is a vital first step towards realising our collaboration potential in the north east London.”

Sectra One Cloud will be deployed as a subscription cloud service for radiology and orthopaedics at the trust, and will be delivered through Microsoft Azure public cloud.

The system will initially handle around 200,000 examinations per year, though this will gradually increase alongside Homerton Healthcare’s production.

Jane Rendall, managing director at Sectra in the UK and Ireland, said: “Sectra and Microsoft share a dedication to improving healthcare and provide high availability, performance and security. I am excited to leverage our experience of providing enterprise imaging in regional and collaborative settings to help Homerton Healthcare achieve clinical benefits, share workloads, and provide their clinicians with modern tools.”

Earlier this year, Sectra deployed a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) across Northern Ireland to combine pathology and radiology images and reports into a single medical imaging system.