Medical professionals in participating trusts will now be able to view radiology images such as x-rays and MRI scans at the point of care, without having to request them from the centre where they were made. They will also be able to view a patient's radiology timeline, including all the images taken for a given patient from participating trusts.
Connect and Share is a web-based patient registry built on the XDS data-sharing standard. As an extension to the IEP it means images can be stored locally by one hospital and still be accessed from other healthcare institutions by approved users, meaning the workflow efficiency of IEP is further improved.
It can integrate with any picture archiving communication system (PACS) or radiology information system (RIS) in the NHS and makes it possible to share radiology referrals, reports and images, without requesting that information from remote centres.
Paolo Zanoni, PACS manager at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust said: "Connect and Share will free clinicians from having to chase to find information they require. It is simple to use and tells the clinician’s browser where to find images and information, even if it is held by another participating trust. Clinicians can then access that information directly."
The web-based technology could also eventually allow specialist clinicians, located hundreds of miles away, to remotely access images and provide advice to colleagues. It could even allow information sharing with primary care and directly with patients.
Steve Jessop, product marketing manager at Sectra, said: "There is a lot of interest nationally in this solution. Clinicians can see the potential for improving clinical care from sharing radiology images and bringing them closer to the point of care. Connect and Share provides a means of doing that in a cost effective way by linking existing radiology systems through an easy to use and powerful solution.
"The NHS knows and trusts the technology behind Connect and Share and we think it has the potential to provide a national solution that gives bedside clinicians and GPs access to their patients images at the point of care.
"Working with the NHS in Bristol to develop a regional solution is providing us with an opportunity to develop a system that is safe and, above all, clinically useful."
About University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust is a dynamic and thriving group of hospitals in the heart of Bristol, a vibrant and culturally diverse city. They have over 8,000 staff who offer over 100 different clinical services across nine different sites.
With services from the neonatal intensive care unit to care of the elderly, they offer care to the people of Bristol and the South West from the very beginning of life to its later stages. They are one of the country's largest acute NHS Trusts with a 2008/2009 income of £454 million.
Their staff have developed leading edge services such as cardiac surgery and bone marrow transplantation that have built an international reputation and are in demand by patients from across the country. With strong links to the University of Bristol and University of West of England they are the major medical research centre in the region. The findings allow them to continually improve their patient care. Their academic links also make them the largest centre for medical training in the South West, attracting the highest calibre clinical staff from across the UK.
Their aim is to provide healthcare, research and teaching of the very highest quality.
About Sectra
Sectra develops and sells IT systems and services for radiology and other image-intensive departments, orthopaedics and rheumatology. More than 1,400 hospitals, clinics and imaging centers worldwide use the systems daily, together performing over 70 million radiology examinations annually. This makes Sectra one of the world-leading companies within systems for handling digital radiology images. In Scandinavia, Sectra is the market leader with more than 50% of all film-free installations. Sectra's systems have been installed in North America, Scandinavia and most major countries in Europe and the Far East.
Sectra was founded in 1978 and has its roots in Linköping University in Sweden. The Group's business operations include cutting-edge products and services within the niche segments of medical systems and secure communication. Sectra has offices in 12 countries and operates through partners worldwide. Sales in the 2012/2013 fiscal year totaled SEK 817 million. The Sectra share is quoted on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm AB exchange.