Tawam Hospital Simplifies Radiology Image And Information Management With Philips Isite Solution

Main Category: Radiology / Nuclear Medicine
Article Date: 14 Jan 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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Tawam Hospital, the Middle East's leading medical institution in affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine International, and Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) celebrated the 'go-live' of the hospital's new iSite Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). Tawam Hospital is the first public hospital in the Middle East to implement iSite's innovative 'fee per study' model. Under the agreement, the hospital pays a fee on a monthly basis to view, distribute and store medical images, rather than making a large payment for equipment up-front.

"Our hospital treats patients with a wide range of complex medical conditions. During diagnosis we capture many different types of medical images, creating a large amount of information that needs to be safely stored and easily accessible by our clinicians," said Michael E. Heindel, CEO of Tawam Hospital. "The Philips iSite solution makes it easier for us to manage our imaging data, while providing access to images wherever and whenever we need it."

"By implementing a PACS solution based on iSite, Tawam Hospital can look forward to working with a worry-free image management system that can grow to meet its needs in the future," said Diederik Zeven, General Manager Middle East for Philips Healthcare. "By taking responsibility for the delivery of the service, Philips is enabling the hospital to focus on the most important part of any healthcare system - its patients."

Tawam Hospital is affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine International and provides specialized medical services including radiotherapy, cardiac care, breast cancer screening and diabetes management. The hospital, the largest in Al Ain, also signed a reference site agreement with Philips earlier in the year.

Under the contract Philips will provide a 99.99 percent uptime PACS service, computed radiography systems and client workstations. The solution integrates with the hospital's Cerner HIS/RIS, creating a paperless, filmless workflow for patients and care providers. In addition to being installed at the main hospital site, the iSite solution also connects two remote sites over a Wide Area Network.

The latest version of iSite features advanced visualization capabilities that are completely integrated into the PACS workflow and provide additional diagnostic information through clinically relevant visualization anywhere throughout the hospital. Fully interactive real-time volumetric reading tools (MIP, MPR, 3D) are delivered to the PACS workstation via Philips iSyntax technology, which brings advanced rendering performance and scalability without additional cost and complexities.

Philips' service delivery model includes unlimited user licenses, all maintenance fees, protection from hardware obsolescence, disaster recovery, remote monitoring, flexibility in workstation components, and all software upgrades for the lifetime of the relationship.

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a diversified Health and Well-being company, focused on improving people's lives through timely innovations. As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of "sense and simplicity". Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 128,000 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 27 billion in 2007, the company is a market leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as lifestyle products for personal well-being and pleasure with strong leadership positions in flat TV, male shaving and grooming, portable entertainment and oral healthcare. News from Philips is located at http://www.philips.com/newscenter.

About Tawam Hospital

Tawam Hospital is a premier, 477-bed tertiary care facility located in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, and the largest of the United Arab Emirates. Tawam serves as a regional referral centre for specialized medical care and a national referral centre for oncology services. Though it offers services in all specialties, the hospital is best known for its neonatal care, emergency medicine, intensive care, oncology services and state-of-the-art cardiac care.

In 2006 Tawam Hospital entered a ten year affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine International demonstrating the hospital's commitment to providing the best services in the GCC region whilst minimizing patient referrals overseas. Tawam Hospital will be launching new services in 2008 and will begin an entire revamping project resulting in state of the art facilities providing the hospitals' patients with the most recent technological facilities in the region meeting international standards.

About Johns Hopkins Medicine

When The Johns Hopkins Hospital and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine were established in Baltimore, USA, over a century ago, the founding physicians had a goal: to lead the world in treating diseases. Today, the name Johns Hopkins is synonymous with just that. Johns Hopkins Medicine continues to provide international leadership in the education of physicians and medical scientists, in biomedical research, and in the application of medical knowledge to sustain health.

Royal Philips Electronics