Visage Imaging Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pro Medicus Ltd. (ASX: PME), announced it has signed Central Illinois Radiological Associates (CIRA). After more than a year of detailed evaluation, software trials, site visits and side-by-side comparisons of available technologies, CIRA selected and has begun installation of Visage 7 as its enterprise imaging platform. 

CIRA, a large Illinois-based radiology group comprising 72 radiologists, provides diagnostic interpretation services to more than 16 different hospitals throughout Illinois.  A key challenge for CIRA radiologists has been providing interpretations across 22 locations, supported by PACS from seven different vendors, nine different RIS systems and a mix of reporting technologies. Seeking to overcome this common challenge for radiology groups, CIRA's platform goal was to have a single unified worklist, enterprise viewer and workflow for remote interpretation across all of their customer sites.

The Visage 7 fast, thin-client enterprise imaging viewer will be fully integrated with the CIRA unified worklist and common dictation platform to provide CIRA radiologists with a powerful, single solution for primary interpretation. 

"One of the critical differentiators highlighted in CIRA's diligent selection process was that Visage 7 did not require patient imaging data be moved from the hospital data center to the radiologist client workstation in order to proceed with diagnostic interpretation," said Dr. Sam Hupert, Visage Imaging's CEO.  "It was something promoted as one of our unique advantages, but we had to prove it conclusively before CIRA's IT experts were able to convince their selection committee that Visage 7 could accomplish what no other competitor could.  We really let our server-side technology do the talking."

"Implementing one unified workflow, across a large number of disparate systems, while meeting our radiologists' strict performance requirements, had never been done before in our experience.  We needed to show our radiologists that this solution would work in practice and was more than just theory," said Patrick Ward, CIRA's CIO.  "Our tests confirmed that with Visage's streaming technology, not only do we no longer have to push DICOM files to the radiologists' workstations, it is the only product that offers us the unique combination of speed, performance and fully native advanced visualization tools all in one enterprise viewer."

"Our agreement with CIRA provides us the opportunity to work with one of the country's most respected radiology groups, supported by a team of cutting-edge Radiology IT professionals," said Dr. Hupert. "We're embarking on a journey to improve CIRA's enterprise workflow, which will reap productivity and efficiency benefits for their radiologists, helping them deliver enhanced service to referring physicians and their patients."

For more information: www.visageimaging.com

SOURCE: Visage Imaging Inc.