In exciting news, Panavista is to be expanded across the whole of the South Eastern Sydney & Illawarra Area Health service (SESIAHS) and will cover 12 hospital sites.

Panavista is Core Medical Solution’s digital imaging product which enables electronic delivery of diagnostic text reports and image data direct to referrers, simply, securely and swiftly.

Steve Flinn, PACS administrator for SESIAHS gives an insight into the decision:

“We have been completely electronic in terms of PACS since 2002 – but this meant that images are stored within hospital IT firewalls and GP’s are not able to access them. We needed to look at ways in which we could solve this and in turn boost our outpatient referral base. Integrating Panavista with our existing PACS we have developed an easy and efficient means for GPs to access public hospital images. GPs know that the system we use is streamlined, quick and accessible. They are more likely to refer extra outpatient studies that normally would be sent to a private radiology practice.”

“This issue is a national issue - indeed it is a global issue - once images are inside the hospital, no one can access them. Panavista is a great solution which ensures competitiveness and will in turn increase revenue and then re-investment back into our public health service. “

SESIAHS has three hospital networks: North, Central and South.

Panavista was first rolled out in the Southern hospital network and covers Bulli, Wollongong, Port Kembla, Shell Harbour, Nowra and Milton hospitals.

In the latest expansion and upgrade, the central and northern networks will be brought on board culminating in Randwick Hospital for Women, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Sydney and Sydney Eye Hospital, St George Hospital and Sutherland Hospital all benefiting from Panavista technology.

“The fact that Rohan Ward (one of the founding Directors of Core Medical Solutions) is a Doctor was a big factor in our decision making” continues Steve.

“You can see that the product is designed for the end user; for GP’s. Where Panavista really leapt above its competition was in its integration capabilities. Panavista can integrate into any practice management software and the Pulse application can send out results in any format. This suited our needs completely as we were dealing with a variety of practice management software systems and it meant that a simple hyperlink allowed each GP to view images in their preferred software.”

“The video streaming is set in such a way that image sets are always viewed efficiently regardless of the internet connection speed. The system also has the ability to email a secure “key” to another specialist. This gives them direct access to the images, meaning that the onus is off the patient to collect and carry physical files- again something that often slows up the referral and diagnosis process.”

Steve adds “We are in the early stages of upgrading Panavista into our Northern and Central hospital networks, but the signs are good. Core Medical Solutions are responsive and offer excellent technical support.

We have a long way to go, but it is an exciting project and one which we are confident will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our Service to the SESIAHS community”.