 | At a ceremony in Brussels, Philips iSite PACS was honored by the IT @ Networking Awards, which recognizes achievements in European healthcare information technology solutions. Specifically Philips was acknowledged for its work with the government of the Netherlands to digitize the nation’s mammograms. The European Association of Healthcare IT Managers and the European Association of Hospital Managers organized the award, |
and the winners were chosen by a vote of attendees at the ceremony. Attendees included hospital CEOs, CIOs, CMIOs, IT managers and other healthcare workers from across Europe.
The digitization of the Netherlands’ mammography program placed second out of a field of 23 nominees. Bert Verdonck of Philips Healthcare and Emile Knops of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) accepted the award.
For more than 20 years, the Netherlands has offered biennial mammograms for all women between the ages of 50 and 75—nearly one million exams per year. In 2008, the RIVM decided to improve the efficiency of its national system by switching from analog to digital images. Philips was selected to implement the digitization.
Called DigiBOB, the project is the first nationwide digital screening program of its kind and the largest digitization project ever in the Netherlands. Philips is in the process of replacing 57 mobile and seven stationary analog screening units with digital ones, and implementing a national PACS to archive more than two million studies.
With iSite PACS organizing the nation’s mammography studies, clinicians will eventually have access to all prior studies, allowing quick comparison with current studies. Hospitals will be able to share images with screening centers over the national PACS, eliminating the need to repeat studies when a woman moves to a new hospital or is referred to a specialist.
Digital mammography images also offer higher resolution than those on film. RIVM expects higher cancer detection rates and a more efficient screening process as a result of the enhanced resolution of the digital images.
+ Read the IT @ Networking Awards Support report