Agfa HealthCare announces today that it is a diamond sponsor of the World of Health IT (WoHIT) 2014 conference held by HIMSS Europe and Middle East, which will take place in Nice, France from April 2-4, 2014. The WoHIT Conference & Exhibition is the premier forum for the advancement of IT in healthcare in Europe. This sponsorship reflects the company's healthcare IT goals: to connect the hospital's medical and administrative specific workflows into a single, comprehensive electronic medical record (EMR); to enable sharing of clinical data both inside and outside the hospital, supporting a patient-centered health record; and to target greater efficiencies and collaboration in enterprise imaging.
Fast and complete access to patient information
With a '360° view of the patient', fast and complete access to all relevant patient information - from clinical and administrative data to medical images - is provided, helping to enable more efficient diagnosis and treatment.
Agfa HealthCare continues its commitment to breaking down the barriers between healthcare providers, as well. Interoperability across hospital departments improves efficiency and productivity, while accessibility to patient information and collaboration between physicians lead to well-informed decisions and better delivery of patient care. Solutions such as ORBIS* and HYDMEDIA* address healthcare needs at the level of the EMR, while ICIS and portal solutions address electronic health record (EHR) and health information exchange (HIE) needs.
Live customer testimonials
To support its messages, Agfa HealthCare will be joined by two European customers. Radboud university medical center, in the Netherlands, will share its experience on how Agfa HealthCare's ICIS solution has enabled the image integration of the EMR -improving interdisciplinary collaboration and reducing the costs of the consolidated imaging platform and IT investments.
The University Hospital (CHU) of Nice, France, will describe the LICORNE project, which aims at a 'continuum of care' by providing a health and medical/social coordination platform that will truly support patients from the hospital into their own homes.
Meeting today's challenges: cost/quality
The healthcare sector today faces a number of challenges and concerns that are addressed by Agfa HealthCare solutions. These include how to control costs while supporting the delivery of quality care by optimizing processes, reducing risks to patients and eliminating redundancies and over-capacity. As the sector moves to a 'pay per outcome' financial model, the roles of each player in the care offer must be clarified, while payments need to be aligned with the benefits, care network and patient engagement.
Solution highlights include: the latest version of ORBIS Medication, which was recently CE marked and addresses care needs by optimizing the medication process and focusing on patient safety and cost control. ORBIS CPOE (Computerized Physician Order Entry) multi-domain lab and imaging exam ordering solution also enhances efficiency by helping to eliminate unnecessary exams and simplify the workflow. ORBIS ME (Mobile Edition) not only brings technology to the patient's bedside, but also makes it possible to consult information wherever it is needed. Agfa HealthCare also offers, as part of the ORBIS portfolio, ICU solutions designed to provide intensive care unit documentation that is fully integrated in the care process. Healthcare providers can benefit from structured patient information and interactive observation charts to reduce information loss and make the complex task involved in collecting and analyzing data easier. With the HYDMEDIA enterprise content management system, facilities can create a centralized, digital archived patient record, fed by any kind of document - electronic or scanned paper -, saving significant physical archiving space and speeding up retrieval times. It thus improves confidentiality, workflows and collaboration, while reducing costs.
Meeting today's challenges: regional healthcare
Coordinating patient care on a regional level is another challenge facing the sector today. Partnerships between healthcare professionals must be consolidated and supported, and patient engagement must be ensured. Virtual services networks and other tools are key to eliminating the isolation of healthcare facilities, and breaking down the barriers to regional healthcare.
Agfa HealthCare has introduced a regional portal solution that reaches across the boundaries of the healthcare institutions by offering patients and healthcare providers with tools that run from the start of the care process - such as appointment requests - to the end - access to results.
Agfa HealthCare is already participating in several regional projects in France to support this. For the Mesanalyses.fr national platform, Agfa HealthCare France implemented new, secure web services to enable patients to access their results from more than 60 laboratories in the region, directly from the TéléSanté Aquitaine portal.
In the SIMRAL (Alsatian regional medical imagery services) project, Agfa HealthCare, Alsace e-santé and Worldline are together deploying an innovative solution for sharing medical images across the region, along with consolidated functions for VNA and image management.
A committed partner, with proven solutions
"Agfa HealthCare has a proven track record, and future-ready solutions that support healthcare facilities of all sizes in enhancing patient care while adapting to a complex and evolving regulatory environment," comments Luc Thijs, President of Agfa HealthCare. "A modern IT platform and streamlined processes allow hospitals to react more quickly to changes. Cost-effective and standards-based, our solutions help facilities meet their budget requirements while increasing overall patient care, safety and satisfaction. This is how we have become number 1 in Europe."
Agfa HealthCare HIS/CIS solutions are now installed in more than 1300 hospitals across 7 countries. There are 500,000 daily users, accounting for 1,000,000 daily patient visits. ORBIS is used by more than 950 hospitals and clinics across Europe while HYDMEDIA is used by more than 400 worldwide. In France, more than 1100 medical laboratories use the HEXALIS laboratory information system.
* not available in the U.S. and Canada.
- Agfa HealthCare's Profile
About Agfa
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world’s leading companies in imaging and information technology. Agfa develops manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), for the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare), and for specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). Agfa is headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries around the globe. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 2,865 million euro in 2013.
About Agfa HealthCare
Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading global provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions. The company has nearly a century of healthcare experience and has been a pioneer on the healthcare IT market since the early 1990's. Today Agfa HealthCare designs, develops and delivers state-of-the-art systems for capturing, managing and processing diagnostic images and clinical/administrative information for hospitals and healthcare facilities, as well as contrast media solutions to enable effective medical imaging results. The company has sales offices and agents in over 100 markets worldwide. Sales for Agfa HealthCare in 2013 were 1,160 million euro.