Revolutionary new system for medical images

In the past, if a farmer from Dorrigo in Northern NSW had a heart attack, after he had recovered, he would have had to physically pack a CD of his MRI scans in his bags before he travelled to Sydney for follow up care with a heart specialist.

But now thanks to a brilliant new state-wide system, the medical images of his heart acquired at Coffs Harbour Health Campus will be able to be immediately viewed by Sydney clinicians.

RIS PACS, as the new system is called, stands for Radiology Information System and Picture Archiving Communication System.

It’s a long name for something that is, in short, about to revolutionise medical imaging across our District.

“This is an absolute game-changer,” says Andrew Roshan, the health District’s ICT change manager on the project. “It means clinicians have access to patient imaging, wherever they live in NSW.”

Not only does the long-awaited new system eliminate the need for the patient to be re-examined when they had had imaging in different hospitals, the images may be literally live-saving when it comes to emergencies.

It makes patient care far more streamlined and secure, too. Patients are able to access images of their X-Rays, MRIs and CT scans onto their mobile phone.

Imaging departments can send text message reminders to the patient with appointment information.

SESLHD is the seventh local health district in NSW to roll out the new system. It will be used in the medical imaging, nuclear medicine, and ultrasound departments in all our hospitals. The system is going live across all sites in March-April 2022.