Agfa Gevaert : HealthCare and Qaelum sign agreement for Dose Monitoring Solution (*) to optimize radiation exposure information across modalities, departments and institutions

- Solution provides data on dose at the study, patient, device, modality or institution level. - Helps ensure compliance with regulations and highlights conformance to guidelines. - Supports radiology best practices and better-informed decisions by physicians.

(RSNA 2014, Booth #4708, South Hall) Agfa HealthCare announces today that it has signed an agreement with Qaelum for a strategic alliance on a dose monitoring system, to support the dose management needs of hospitals and imaging networks. Primary focus will be on the EMEA region. Radiation exposure is an issue for every player in a patient's treatment, from the patient, to the referring physician, to the radiology department, to regulatory bodies and to researchers. The Dose Monitoring Solution will enable organizations to manage, analyze and balance their radiation dose management.

Flexible solution integrates in the existing PACS environment
With the strategic alliance, Agfa HealthCare's Dose Monitoring Solution will include Qaelum's tqm|DOSETM platform for patient radiation dose monitoring, analysis and improvement in digital imaging. The Dose Management Solution integrates in existing PACS environments and collects relevant dose and metadata information. It then uses this information to provide radiation dose analyses at the study, patient, device, modality, institution or regional level. Information on radiation exposure levels can support the referring physician in making a better-informed decision, while allowing the radiology department to conform to best practices and to regulations, for example. The platform also provides all the tools needed to perform Root Cause Analysis, to understand and solve potential problems.

Optimized workflows and quality assurance
"Qaelum is a leader in Advanced Dose Management software solutions," says Willy Rosé, Head of Marketing IT EMEA of Agfa HealthCare. "Our strategic alliance will help support medical imaging departments' goal of providing ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) compliant x-ray imaging protocols, as well as optimized workflows and quality assurance, while maximizing the use of existing resources and investments."

"We are delighted to be working with Agfa HealthCare as part of this innovative and forward thinking initiative," says Jurgen Jacobs, CEO and co-founder of Qaelum. "By combining our own strengths in Dose Management with the flexibility and functionality of Agfa HealthCare's solutions, we can now offer healthcare enterprises a distinctive solution that addresses many of today's challenges with reporting patient radiation dose and enables genuine improvement. Our combined solution will help institutions drive more value from their existing PACS/RIS investments, now and into the future."

(*) Agfa HealthCare Dose Monitoring Solution with Qaelum tqm|DOSETM platform is not available in the U.S. or Canada.

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