Agfa Gevaert : HealthCare takes imaging and reporting data into the cloud, for regional Italian hospital Azienda Ospedaliera di Perugia

- System will offer high level of data privacy and security. - Data will be available to caregivers and patients via secure access through the patient portal. - Solution will act as a model for future project to integrate data centers of up to 14 hospital sites.

Agfa HealthCare announces that it will realize a cloud and data center solution for the Azienda Ospedaliera di Perugia, in Umbria, Italy. The agreement is part of a move by the hospital and other healthcare sites in the region to digitize and computerize the processing and storage of images and reports, and to bring them into a single repository.

A Highly Specialized Enterprise
Azienda Ospedaliera di Perugia, which includes the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Perugia, has been designated a Highly Specialized Enterprise (Azienda di Alta Specialità), thanks to its high level of technology and the specialized professional skills available at the facility. Offering the only emergency services for a local population of 300,000, it is also a reference center for the region of Umbria as well as for neighboring regions.

Centralized storage offering security and privacy
To support all its services and to continuously enhance the delivery of care offered to patients, computerization of data, images and reports and their archiving within a central, accessible repository is key.

In August 2014, Azienda Ospedaliera di Perugia and Agfa HealthCare signed an agreement to implement a data center, including a cloud solution. This solution will make it possible to store data - images, reports, diagnostic results, ECG - from the various hospital departments in the cloud, with a high level of data privacy and security.

At the same time, the installation of the web portal makes the data accessible to patients, who can view their own results on the web. "This accessibility is appreciated by both caregivers and the patients," comments Dott. Roberto Tarducci, Health Physics director of Azienda Ospedaliera di Perugia.

First step towards a regional central archive
The Agfa HealthCare cloud and data center solution will also act as a model for an upcoming project to build a central archive that will bring together all studies produced by Azienda Ospedaliera di Perugia and by up to 14 additional Umbrian local health units.

"As we produce more and more reports and images, it is absolutely critical that we have effective and efficient solutions to store them and make them accessible, in digital format," continues Dott. Robert Tarducci. "Using the Agfa HealthCare solution as a model opens up new perspectives for us regionally as well as in the Azienda Ospedaliera di Perugia site itself. By allowing the regional centers to quickly and effectively access the information they need, diagnoses and treatment can be more efficient, saving time for caregivers. We expect to see an especially significant impact on emergency care."

"We have supported a number of healthcare facilities in Italy with professional, secure and performant solutions, and we are very pleased to have the opportunity to do so for Azienda Ospedaliera di Perugia," says Salvatore Selvaggio, Country Manager, Agfa HealthCare Italy. "Investing in this type of radiology network is particularly attractive now, as it allows hospitals and hospital networks to quickly build an extensive infrastructure without requiring a lot of new resources. Yet by successively giving the various clinics and specialist centers access to the information they need, it creates a lot of value."

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