According to Frost and Sullivan the European Cardiology PACS (Picture Archiving & Communication System) sector is a booming market. Cardiologists are increasingly following the trend, set by radiologists in recent years, of implementing integrated solutions and state-of-the-art data/image management systems in their departments and are now experiencing a filmless healthcare environment.
“The GE solution means that we can generate Cath Lab reports much more quickly (minutes instead of weeks), and these reports are immediately available throughout our organization,” said Dr. Peter Glennon, Consultant Cardiologist at University Hospital Coventry in the United Kingdom. “There is automatic storage of all our cardiac images on the GE Cardiology PACS. We can access these images rapidly from any PC in the hospital, a capability that really speeds up clinical decision-making. Cardiologists have been slow to adopt this kind of technology, mainly because of our particularly demanding clinical and imaging requirements. We have been impressed by how GE products have integrated with our clinical workflow and hospital IT systems – at last we are truly working in the 21st century,” Dr Glennon emphasized.
GE’s Centricity meets the demands for advanced data management and PACS capabilities in a common infrastructure for cardiology and radiology, enabling cardiologists to treat the direct cause of heart disease instead of the symptoms only. The system runs the entire administrative, diagnostic and treatment workflow and digitally stores clinical information from Electrocardiographs (ECGs), Echocardiographs, Cath Labs, CT/MRI scanners and PM/ICD devises. The solution’s flagships Centricity Carddas Xi² and CA1000 are following the latest international standards like IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) and HL7 (Health Level 7). GE Healthcare is among the first companies to test the Implantable Device Cardiac Observations (IDCO) workflow during the last European IHE Connectathon, underlining its commitment to actively driving international standards to the next level.
“The fact that Frost & Sullivan in 2006 awarded us for market leadership in the European Cardiology PACS market underlines the strong position we attained by investing in our solutions portfolio for the management of cardiology data and images,” said Hellmer Rahms, Sales Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa at GE Healthcare Integrated IT Solutions. “We are proud that our products perform excellently in the market and really help to overcome a cardiologist’s daily challenges,” Rahms concluded.
Heart diseases are a paramount cause of death today and kill about 17 million people a year, which is almost one-third of all deaths globally. By 2020, heart disease and stroke will become the leading cause of both death and disability worldwide, with the number of fatalities projected to increase to over 20 million a year. Centricity Cardiology IT solutions are following GE Healthcare’s philosophy of ‘Early Health’ and thus help to predict, diagnose, treat, monitor and inform heart disease earlier than ever before.