Illinois hospital upgrades to Carestream Healthcare IT platforms featuring advanced features, consolidated data storage

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Feb. 11 — Memorial Medical Center (Springfield, Ill.), has achieved immediate benefits from upgrading to the newest CARESTREAM Vue PACS and CARESTREAM Vue for Vendor Neutral Archive. Carestream’s zero footprint Vue Motion image viewer now equips more than 500 physicians with access to radiology reports and imaging studies from mobile devices such as iPads, which provides rapid, easy access at any location—from patients’ hospital rooms to operating suites or offices.

“Our new image viewer enables physicians to make treatment decisions quickly since they have on-demand access to imaging data and patient information from Web-enabled devices such as Apple iPads,” said Marjorie Calvetti, RT(R), MSW, MBA, the hospital’s Director of Medical Imaging.

 “This new capability also allows doctors to enhance their communication with patients by explaining the patient’s condition and allowing them to view their medical exams.”

An automatic registration feature for MRI, CT and other 3D exams electronically overlays one exam on top of another to help radiologists detect subtle changes in a patient’s condition, while lesion management capabilities offer measurement tools that can help radiologists determine whether a cancerous lesion is growing or shrinking. Other enhancements included in the Vue PACS platform include integrated advanced visualization, vessel analysis and cardiac analysis.

“These advanced tools can help enhance patient care,” Calvetti added. “Having these capabilities accessible from our PACS also allows us to remove dedicated workstations from other suppliers to reduce expenses. Our radiologists can analyze these exams from any PACS workstation, which streamlines workflow and expedites radiology reporting.”

The hospital’s flexible Vue Archive now supports radiology, cardiology, neurology and radiation oncology exams to enable the facility to achieve the cost and management benefits of a consolidated storage platform.

This upgrade was a major undertaking since the hospital had not upgraded its PACS and archiving platform for more than five years. “I am happy to report that the upgrade was flawlessly executed. We never experienced any downtime and Carestream’s service and support was exceptional,” Calvetti said.

 “Carestream trained our on-site imaging service team so they could address any questions from physicians. Fortunately the system’s intuitive user interface allowed our clinicians to become proficient very quickly, so minimal instruction was required,” she explained.

“Carestream also conducted advanced training for radiologists on the new features prior to implementation, and the trainers came back the week we went live to address any questions. Several weeks later Carestream conducted a final round of advanced training for radiologists to ensure that they were fully proficient on the new tools,” Calvetti added. “Carestream’s planning, preparation and training all contributed to a smooth transition.”

For more information on Carestream’s medical imaging and IT solutions, please visit www.carestream.com.

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About Memorial Medical Center

Memorial Medical Center is a Magnet-designated, acute care hospital in Springfield, Ill., that offers comprehensive inpatient and outpatient services. Since 1970, Memorial has been a teaching hospital affiliated with Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIUSM) for the purpose of providing clinical training for SIUSM residents. The hospital is part of Memorial Health System, which is a community-based, not-for-profit organization dedicated to patient care, education and research. For more information, visit www.memorialmedical.com.

About Carestream Health

Carestream is a worldwide provider of dental and medical imaging systems and IT solutions;

X-ray imaging systems for non-destructive testing; and advanced materials for the precision films and electronics markets—all backed by a global service and support network. For more information about the company’s broad portfolio of products, solutions and services, please contact your Carestream representative or call 888-777-2072, or visit www.carestream.com.

To view Carestream’s latest news announcements, please visit www.carestream.com\news.

 CARESTREAM is a trademark of Carestream Health.