(01/03/2004) AGFA wins 1,650,000 euros PACS project to link six hospitals in Vejle County, Denmark

Flexibility and scalability coupled with professional service offering persuades hospital group Mortsel / Belgium, 1 March 2004 Agfa will deliver an IMPAX(tm) system integrated to the existing Radiology Information System (RIS) to six hospitals in Vejle County, Denmark. With production security and Teaching Files as integral components of this comprehensive Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) project, Vejle County has high expectations as to future prospects towards an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system in which clinical images are a natural part of the complete solution. 'Our choice of Agfa as our PACS supplier and RIS integrator was due to the fact that their solution was flexible in scalability and the potential to expand IMPAX to a hospital-wide PACS in which all clinical images are archived,' said Vejle County's Project Manager, Peter Nielsen. Vejle County covers an area of 2997 km2 in southern Denmark with a population of approximately 354,000 inhabitants. Lying on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula, Vejle County is one of the most densely populated areas of Denmark outside Greater Copenhagen. The six hospitals in the county are spread out over the area and carry out around 210,000 radiology studies per year. The technical solution is based on a centralized IMPAX database together with a Storage Area Network (SAN) archive. The integration of modalities, modality workstations, IMPAX DS 3000, IMPAX CS 5000 and IMPAX QC 3000 will be accomplished via decentralized IMPAX Workflow Managers. Several DS 3000 workstations for use in conferences and for diagnostics will be placed in all six radiology departments. Distribution of study images and descriptions will be handled through IMPAX WEB 1000(tm) to enable clinicians to view and read study results in the clinical departments on existing workstations and standard PCs. As production security is an important issue for the hospital group, a separate test environment will be set up in which new software versions and changes can be tested against the existing interfaces before release. Another important issue for the Vejle County hospitals is an education system. By offering Teaching Files as part of the total IMPAX solution, Agfa fulfilled this specific request. Teaching Files enable the construction of study collections and educational materials concurrently with daily operations. 'We chose to partner with Agfa because of their professionalism and competence,' said Vejle County's Project Manager, Peter Nielsen. 'They demonstrated to us that they were capable of carrying out this major implementation task including such professional services as project management, workflow analysis, applications, operations and maintenance.' The six hospitals will go into implementation one-by-one. The project is scheduled to start first quarter of 2004 and to be completed by second quarter 2005. End of message About Agfa The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world's leading imaging companies. Agfa develops, manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems, intended mainly for the graphics industry, healthcare, micrographics, motion picture and photography markets. Agfa's headquarters are in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is active in 40 countries and has 120 agents throughout the world. Together they achieved a turnover of 4,683 million euros in 2002. Product and company information can be found on Agfa's home page on the World Wide Web at: www.agfa.com. Agfa, the Agfa rhombus, IMPAX, IMPAX WEB 1000 and See More. Do More. are trademarks of Agfa-Gevaert N.V., Belgium or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Contacts: Marcus Ostländer Manager Marketing Systems Solutions HealthCare Europe tel.: +32 (0) 3 444 93 26 e-mail: marcus.ostlander@agfa.com Geertrui De Smet PR and Events Manager HealthCare tel.: +32 (0) 3 444 73 06 fax: +32 (0) 3 444 72 85 e-mail: geertruidesmet@agfapress.com Johan Jacobs Corporate Press Relations Manager tel.: +32 (0)3 444 80 15 fax: +32 (0)3 444 74 85 e-mail: johan.jacobs@agfa.com (C) CompanynewsGroup