Sydney, December 13, 2013
Fujitsu announces that HealthShare NSW1 has won a prestigious NSW Premier's Award for the pioneering Enterprise Imaging Repository (EIR). Presented at a gala ceremony in Sydney on November 13, the award honours the significant achievements and collaborative efforts of the HealthShare NSW and Fujitsu Australia teams, which are implementing the EIR at more than 220 public hospitals across the state’s 15 Local Health Districts.
A NSW Health2 initiative, the EIR is based on a leading patient-centric management and distribution solution. In an Australian first, the new scalable medical imaging exchange will make a significant difference to patient care, especially for people who need treatment in multiple hospitals and also for those who live in rural and regional areas.
Topping the ‘Improving Performance and Accountability’ category, the EIR program was one of just 35 finalists selected from 349 nominations across all NSW government agencies in the NSW Premier’s Awards, which shine a light on the work of individual public-sector employees, projects and partnerships providing excellent public service.
The EIR is a glowing example of one such partnership. The collaborative efforts of Fujitsu Australia and HealthShare NSW led to the development of a vendor-neutral archive (VNA). This means that irrespective of which NSW public hospital a patient visits, doctors will have immediate access to their X-rays, scans and reports from across the state.
"The EIR is a truly trailblazing solution, not only here in Australia but also internationally. I'm not aware of an integrated imaging repository as large or as complex as what we have built here in NSW. Fujitsu has been a terrific partner throughout. Members of their project team have been fantastic and deserve this award as much as we do."
Joe Hughes, Program Manager, Medical Imaging, HealthShare NSW
"The Premier’s award is further evidence of a symbiotic and synergistic team. We are achieving great things together and making real impacts in the Health IT landscape."
Les Davey, Executive General Manager, Business and Application Services, Fujitsu Australia Limited
The volumes of activity are huge. The EIR is generating thousands of imaging studies each day and already has over 1.2 million stored with 85 million individual images. It also stores 17 million LHD patient records, two million of which have national Healthcare Identifiers.
The EIR is delivering huge benefits for:
- Patients, by reducing unnecessary procedures and associated exposure to radiation;
- Clinical staff, by supporting improved quality and safety of care as they can easily see previous images and reports for their patients irrespective of where the study was done; and
- Local Health Districts, by reducing the cost of repeat procedures.
Les Davey, Group Executive Director, Business and Application Services, Fujitsu Australia Limited, said: “Providing innovative ways to improve health outcomes for patients, as well as increasing the performance and productivity of health services, is at the core of our R&D in Health Solutions. We are very proud to be on this journey with HealthShare NSW and are delighted to support them on this fantastic achievement.”
Click here to see what some of NSW’s leading clinicians have to say about the EIR.