Diagnostic Imaging / Picture Archiving and Communications System

The Diagnostic Imaging / Picture Archiving and Communications System (DI/PACS) is a secure computer system that contains patient radiology reports and diagnostic images such as CT scans, ultrasounds, MRIs and x-rays. It has eliminated the need for film and paper diagnostic images.

DI/PACS gives health care providers important information to make better decisions about a patient’s treatment. Authorized health care providers can share images and reports securely within their facilities and with other providers across the province. The images are stored in a repository from which they and their accompanying reports can be retrieved in digital format. This capability is reducing the need for patients to travel to see a specialist.

eHealth Ontario’s DI/PACS program is part of its strategy to improve patient care, safety and access by giving providers access to vital clinical activity information systems. eHealth Ontario coordinates six approved regional DI/PACS projects covering 148 hospitals and provides funding support and the ONE® Network that gives providers access to the system.

Benefits

The availability of DI/PACS is an ehealth success story and demonstrates the value of technology in improving patient care and clinician efficiency.

Patient benefits:

• Eliminates unnecessary patient travel every year.
• Reduces wait times and lengths of stay thanks to quicker exam reports and clinical decisions by physicians and specialists.
• Reduces duplicate and unnecessary exams.
• Improves access to radiologists by 30 to 40 per cent for patients in remote areas.
• Eliminates the need to physically transfer images or CDs to the specialist.

Physician benefits:

• Faster and easier access to images and reports.
• Remote access to images for off-hours coverage.
• Enhances remote reporting capabilities.
• Real-time clinical collaboration, increasing access to a broader range of specialists.

Progress to date

The implementation of DI/PACS initiatives across the province is a major ehealth collaboration effort. Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), hospitals, vendors, not-for-profit companies and eHealth Ontario’s project team have been working together toward the common goal of accelerating the implementation of health information systems.

To date, the DI/PACS collaboration has resulted in all hospitals in Ontario accessing digital images instead of film and the following achievements:

• 70 per cent of all Emergency Neurosurgery Image Transfer System (ENITS) sites have been deployed and the ENITS service has been used in the neurological diagnosis of 250 critical encounters to date, avoiding 102 unnecessary emergency patient transfers and saving the Ontario health system an estimated $10 million.
• The Southwest Ontario Digital Imaging Network (SWODIN) Project has 36 hospitals connected to its repository and completed its first integration between a dissimilar vendor’s PACS application into SWODIN’s DI repository.
• The Hospital Diagnostic Imaging Repository Services (HDIRS) now has 18 of its 23 hospitals connected to the repository and the project completed the sharing of images between its Agfa Healthcare PACS hospitals.
• The Northern & Eastern Ontario Diagnostic Imaging Network (NEODIN) DI project (Champlain, North East and North West LHINs) repository went live on September 1, 2009, with North Bay hospital being the first
  hospital to be connected to the repository.
• The current state analysis for the DI images generated in the Independent Health Facilities (IHFs) is in progress.

Next steps

In the third quarter of 2009-10, eHealth Ontario will work with its partners to deploy ENITS to additional sites. Two new hospitals in Waterloo Wellington and Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHINs will be integrated into SWODIN and two new hospitals will be integrated into the NEODIN repository. It is also working on developing the DI Common Services (provincial image exchange) Project, ongoing security enhancements and future integration activities with IHFs.