Royal Philips has announced a key milestone in its 15-year alliance with Georgia Regents Medical Center (GRMC) with the installation of Philips IntelliSpace PACS version 4.4, a single, integrated clinical IT platform that allows clinicians to access a patient's complete imaging history from any department across the care continuum.

The system will not only provide clinicians with a more holistic view of a patient’s health, but will also enable GRMC to extend access to imaging data to its more remote regional care facilities. The unique managed service delivery model of Philips IntelliSpace PACS encompasses total cost of ownership, simplifies IT operations and provides built-in flexibility, scalability and interoperability.

Georgia Regents Medical Center Radiologic Services chief Dr James V Rawson noted the role of technology is to ease the burden on clinicians and allow them to focus on what truly matters – patient care.

"This new Picture Archiving and Communication System from Philips enables us to store, access, and review everything from old X-ray films to the most advanced digital images in all modalities, including PET, CT, MRI, and ultrasound. Having a patient’s complete medical history and images incorporated into the electronic medical record (EMR) and readily available will improve patient outcomes and lower costs," Dr Rawson added.

The pilot installation at GRMC started with radiology and will expand to cardiology, obstetrics and all other imaging services over the next few months.

Philips IntelliSpace PACS is part of the growing portfolio within Philips recently-launched Healthcare Informatics Solutions and Services Group, which offers consulting and solutions services to hospitals and health systems as they pursue new, more effective models to improve access, optimize workflows and increase quality across the continuum of care.

IntelliSpace PACS interoperability with the EMR provides relevant data and collaboration throughout the enterprise to significantly advance workflow management, diagnostic imaging and reporting.

Philips IntelliSpace PACS consolidates and stores multi-vendor clinical images from multiple departments across several systems, managing virtually all medical images from radiology, cardiology, dermatology, endoscopy, ophthalmology and more. Its multi-modality advanced visualization capabilities support clinical decision-making virtually anywhere, anytime, providing clinical insights where and when it matters most.

In June 2013, Philips and GRMC entered into a 15-year $300m agreement to improve outcomes and deliver more effective and cost-efficient care to the four to six million people who live in the region across Georgia and South Carolina being served through GRMC, Children’s Hospital of Georgia, Georgia Regents University Cancer Center and the health system’s numerous outpatient clinics.

The installation of Philips IntelliSpace PACS delivers on Philips’ commitment to create a more patient-centered approach to care and an innovative business model that addresses current and future clinical, operational and equipment needs of GRMC’s multiple sites.