Agfa HealthCare expands enterprise imaging platform with release of ICIS View 3.0, further extending ICIS viewing and integration capabilities

Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of enterprise clinical imaging and IT solutions, announces today the global release for sale of ICIS(TM) View 3.0*, the medical images and results viewer for the comprehensive ICIS enterprise imaging solution.  The ICIS patient imaging data platform is a fundamental part of the company's global e-health strategy. Building on its leadership in enterprise imaging management and web-enabled technology, Agfa HealthCare's ICIS View 3.0 allows clinicians, specialists, and all other stakeholders to access all patient imaging data from any PACS or VNA, using a single viewer, to support continuity and productivity of patient care. This cost-effective solution leverages the hospital's existing investment in technology, and provides access to the most current and relevant patient imaging data directly from the source.

To be demonstrated in the U.S. during the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) Annual Meeting, June 6-9, ICIS View 3.0 consolidates the viewing experience for clinicians throughout the enterprise, providing individualized access to patient data from Agfa HealthCare's ICIS platform as well as any vendor's PACS or VNA.  ICIS enables providers to manage images just like other patient information - in the EMR.

Image Enabling the EMR: Clinical Context is Key

ICIS View is powered by the innovative XERO^® technology and is a core facet of Agfa HealthCare's ICIS (Imaging Clinical Information System) workflow-centric services platform for providing secure access for all clinicians to multidisciplinary image information through the EMR.  ICIS elevates imaging data capture, consolidation, management, and access from disparate departments to the enterprise, to drive powerful clinical advances and IT efficiencies.  The ICIS platform enables health networks to unify their patient records within the relevant clinical context of the EMR as well as leverage their infrastructure investment.

"As more departments generate imaging data, simply consolidating storage does not solve the challenge of using imaging to improve the delivery of quality care.  Clinical workflow, designed to unify patient records in the EMR, is needed to acquire, distribute, and consume these images," said James Jay, Vice President - Imaging Informatics, Agfa HealthCare.  "Agfa HealthCare is a leader in recognizing and meeting this challenge. ICIS delivers a comprehensive framework to enable flexible workflows to bring images into every step of the care continuum.  This provides clinicians with a single point of access for all imaging data, integrated into the EMR, which can help reduce duplicate procedures and enable efficient care."

All imaging data from all sources

An added benefit of the ICIS platform is that there is no need to migrate the data from legacy systems.  ICIS View allows direct access to imaging data stored within PACS or VNAs.  A single server will connect to multiple image managers at the same time, using DICOM and/or WADO. Users can view images from multiple PACS with ICIS View within their preferred presentation view, defined by a chosen ICIS theme.

Planned to be released, ICIS Clinical Applications 1.0 can be added into the solution suite, enabling viewing of MIP/MPR/3D images from CT and MR datasets, within the same browser-based viewer. 

A new user interface design for cine viewing plays at the DICOM-specific frame rate, allows adjustments of cine speed and trim, and enables autoplay in 1-up mode.  Mobile device usage is enhanced with quick response (QR) codes for fast image sharing and collaboration. 

Driving new revenues and reducing costs

"ICIS provides secure access to imaging data from different departments in one view, to anyone who needs this information: clinicians, specialists, referring physicians and patients," comments Koen Meeusen, Global Solution Manager Regional Health for Agfa HealthCare. "This flexible and comprehensive access lets hospitals make more efficient use of their staff, provide new services for clinicians, expand their clinical services, and build a robust EMR at a lower cost. By helping hospitals drive revenues and decrease costs overall, our ICIS platform can play a key role in fulfilling hospitals' operations strategies."

With more than 100 installations deployed worldwide, ICIS View has been successfully implemented in both large regional networks that require image sharing, as well as in individual hospitals needing both internal and external image distribution.

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 2,948 million euro in 2010.

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 2010 were 1,180 million euro.  For more information on Agfa HealthCare, please visit www.agfahealthcare.com