Two Singapore Healthcare Groups Purchase Carestream’s Radiology Information Systems to Help Optimize Patient Care

Two leading Singapore public healthcare groups, SingHealth and Eastern Health Alliance (EH Alliance), and the Singapore Health Ministry’s IT arm, IHiS, have purchased Carestream’sVue RIS (Radiology Information System) and Vue PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System) to enable better access and management of radiology results and patient imaging data. SingHealth Group attends to over 4 million patient visits every year.  

“We are honored to provide our healthcare IT systems to help SingHealth and EH Alliance continue as outstanding care providers to the communities they serve,” said Diana L. Nole, President, Digital Medical Solutions, Carestream. “By laying a solid foundation for long-term partnerships with SingHealth, EH Alliance and IHiS, we have undertaken these landmark healthcare IT projects with some of the most renowned healthcare organizations in the Asia-Pacific region.”

To date, Carestream’s Vue RIS+PACS has been rolled out in the Singapore General Hospital, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, National Cancer Centre Singapore, National Heart Centre Singapore and SingHealth Polyclinics. The next phase of implementation at Changi General Hospital will be implemented in January 2014. The systems provide instant access to imaging data from any location and create one unified imaging patient file, resulting in better access to information by SingHealth’s and EH Alliance’s hospitals, specialty centres and clinics. 

“We are mindful of the constant need to leverage technology to optimize our care delivery efforts. With this new system, patients get better and safer integrated care, resulting in improved clinical outcomes. It is also a significant step toward achieving our nation’s goal of providing seamless medical care for Singaporeans,” said Associate Professor Tan Bien Soo, Senior Consultant, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Singapore General Hospital and Chairman of the RIS/PACS Steering Committee.

The healthcare groups and IHiS also selected CARESTREAM Vue Connect powered by Carestream’s SuperPACS platform, which enables radiology and patient information to be shared easily across their multiple sites. Carestream’s enterprise workflow architecture delivers a global patient worklist while maintaining synchronization with each local PACS system. This allows each hospital and imaging centre to manage its own imaging data, while also enabling SingHealth’s and EH Alliance’s radiology staffs to provide sub-specialty reading and consultation across their entire healthcare system.

Carestream also will deploy its RIS+PACS to streamline all aspects of the radiology workflow, from exam ordering and patient scheduling to reading of X-ray exams by radiologists. Working with the healthcare organizations, the company also will establish a central image repository to manage more than 1 million exams annually across SingHealth’s and EH Alliance’s integrated network of three hospitals, five national specialty centres and nine polyclinics.

“In addition to improving the productivity of radiologists and other clinicians, physicians will gain faster, more efficient access to radiology reports and patient imaging exams, which can improve patient care by expediting treatment,” Nole said.

Carestream’s PACS is designed to achieve a more efficient workflow that can enhance patient care. With Vue PACS, referring physicians can quickly and easily view imaging studies for their patients – no matter where the study was performed or where the physicians are located.

The company’s healthcare IT solutions are in use at major medical facilities around the world, including Israel's Clalit Health Services, the world’s second largest HMO; National Services Scotland; Winthrop University Hospital, Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare and Tufts Medical Center in the U.S.; Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris in France; National Institute of Radiological Sciences and Kansai Medical University in Japan; Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia; The Hong Kong Hospital Authority; and many more.

More information on Carestream’s medical imaging and healthcare IT solutions can be located at www.carestream.com.