Veterans Integrated Service Network 19 implements system-wide radiation dose monitoring, with Agfa HealthCare and PACSHealth

Agfa HealthCare announces today that it has collaborated in delivering a system-wide DoseMonitor automated software implementation, integrated with their IMPAX platform, to the Veterans Integrated Service Networks 19 (VISN 19). Contracts for DoseMonitor have already been awarded by VISN 21 and VISN 23.

Automated dose tracking and greater visibility

VISN 19 spans a geographic area of 540,000 square miles across the states of Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma and portions of Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada and North Dakota. It is estimated that over 1,000,000 veterans reside within the network's geographic boundaries. VISN 19 operates 8 Health Care Systems (HCS), 2 hospitals and 123 additional sites of care. 

In September 2018, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs issued an award effective September 28, 2018 to Agfa HealthCare Corporation to implement PACSHealth's dose monitoring system to multiple facilities in VISN 19. The system will help enable the network health system and member facilities to monitor patient radiation dose on a per-procedure and cumulative basis. The software provides fast enterprise-wide visibility into patient dose exposure for multiple modalities and reporting systems. Dashboards, alerts and notifications can be customized to individual facilities' preferences.

Compare and correct

The dose tracking system includes the new Global Dose Registry feature, which allows users of DoseMonitor to access a global database with millions of anonymized studies from around the world. Parameters compared include: CDTIvol Mean (mGy), DLP (mGy.cm), Effective Dose (mSv), Stationary CTDIvol(mGy), and, where applicable, Delivered Total Contrast Volume (ml).

VISN 19 and its individual facilities can easily compare local dose metrics (enterprise, facility, device, manufacturer, operator, patient, procedure, etc.) against the global registry in real time, replacing the time- and resource-consuming process of separate data collection and manual reporting.

"Agfa HealthCare is committed to helping healthcare enterprises find ways to control and reduce patient dose, and the Global Dose Registry,integrated with DoseMonitor, enables them to compare dose metrics in realtime against the global registry. This represents a significant improvement over existing data aggregation sources which require separate data collection and manual reporting." comments Jarius Jackson, Enterprise Dose Management Product Manager of Agfa HealthCare. "It can thus play an important role in helping the care providers to provide optimized patient care."

"Having DoseMonitor with the Global Dose Registry will allow the Veterans Service network to make significant operational efficiencies, with both an enterprise-wide and a site-by-site visibility on patient dose," says Mike Battin COO of PacsHealth LLC. "The system design will allow for  integration with their internal reporting systems and provide visibility through real time dashboards and alert notifications."