Rivals break new ground in IT

Siemens and GE have each achieved milestones in IT, landing key customers for their integrated RIS/PACS products. Bethesda Healthcare System in Boynton Beach, FL, became the first healthcare provider to implement Siemens' RIS/PACS combination. The integrated product eliminates the need for additional electronic devices, or "brokers," to communicate between RIS and PACS. Bethesda Healthcare deployed the product in its emergency department, intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit, radiation oncology, women's health, and imaging services. The integrated RIS/PACS is the first product resulting from the merger of medical technology and equipment manufacturer Siemens Medical Solutions with former healthcare IT company Shared Medical Systems, now known as Siemens Medical Solutions Health Services. The new product is a combination of SHS' snewly released Novius Radiology Information System, version 26, and Siemens' Sienet PACS. Speech recognition was also added.

GE Medical Systems Information Technologies has signed a five-year agreement with Illawarra Area Health Service, which will provide the GE Centricity RIS/PACS and Centricity Computed Radiography (CR) products to the Wollongong Hospital complex in New South Wales, Australia. Wollongong is a six-hospital campus featuring a major public teaching facility and peripheral support facilities. The RIS/PACS will allow clinicians to electronically access patient images and medical information at a single workstation; the CR component will feed digital x-ray images into the RIS/PACS. The agreement marks the first integrated Centricity RIS/PACS in Australia/New Zealand and Asia, and the largest multiple-site implementation of the technology, covering approximately 161 miles.