News of Installations
Case Study Format for Moorview Veterinary Practice
General Details:
www.moorviewvets.co.uk
Jonathan Deacon BVMS, CertSAS, MRCVS
Moorview Vets,
Moorview,
Station Road,
Backworth,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
NE27 0AA
Tel. 01912566990
Fax. 01912681093
Email. info@moorviewvets.co.uk
Background
Moorview Vets is a first opinion and referral practice that was opened in September 2008 in a newly converted site. I had previously worked in a multidisciplinary referral practice in West Yorkshire which used the Konica Minolta Regius CR system in both radiography suites. The new installation comprises a Regius 110 reader and with the new Image Pilot system from Konica Minolta. This is the first Pilot installation in the UK.
The Practice
The practice has a busy first opinion workload and a steadily increasing number of referral cases. The practice employs certificate holders in small animal surgery, cardiology and dermatology. A mobile 1.5T MRI scanner is on site every 4 weeks at present although this will become more frequent as demand increases.
The Workflow
Due to the surgical caseload
there is a bias towards orthopaedic radiographic studies.
One of the big
advantages of the new system is the unique processing software resident
on Image Pilot. This means that the user does not have to select body part
algorithms or make any pre-selection of image optimization parameters.
It is a fully automated process which considerably speeds up image acquisition
and throughput.
The review platform is a 19” diagnostic colour monitor
which displays the acquired CR images just 23 seconds after processing.
Further it also displays input data from a range of modalities including
MRI, ultrasound and in the future CT.
It can then store the image data
to the local HD and export it in multiple formats ( JPEG, DICOM, TIFF )
and to selected media.
Currently the MRI data is transferred as DICOM images
via DVD and stored alongside the plain radiographs.
The ability to export
the images in JPEG into the client records allows for direct access in any
of the consultation rooms for discussion with clients. Referral letters are
emailed on patient discharge to the referring veterinarian with the relevant
radiographs as attachments for their records.
Current situation
The design
brief for the imaging system had to fulfill a number of requirements.
A computerized
system was an absolute requirement to do away with the space required for
a dark room, the ongoing costs of film and chemicals, the health and safety
implications, the storage of hard copy images and the long developing times
and therefore longer anesthetic times associated with traditional systems.
A CR system was chosen over a DR system for a number of reasons. There is
a significant difference in capital investment with CR the more viable format
for most private clinics. Even if this is taken out of the equation the flexibility
of the CR system allows for much easier positioning for extremity radiographs
than the fixed DR plate, the cassettes can be use for intra-oral radiographs
or in the dental suite with a dental x-ray unit.
The time difference is only
a matter of seconds and with the new image pilot software this is more than
compensated for by the fact that there is no need to navigate through any
preset menus prior to image acquisition.
So far the new installation has exceeded expectations. The software is intuitive and allows for extensive image manipulation. The ability to export images to all parts of the practice and to referring practices aids communication between colleagues and clients. The ability to store multiple imaging modalities in the same patient folder saves time when reporting studies.
Conclusion
Konica Minolta made the installation process very simple. The building is hard wired for network computers in every room which enabled the CR reader and the image Pilot work station to be installed and up and running the same day! The speed with which images can be produced, viewed and saved means that studies can be performed in a fraction of the time giving a significant increase in throughput resulting in a reduction in both anesthetic duration and professional time. This coupled with the fact that there are no ongoing consumable costs and the long servicing intervals makes good commercial without all the previously mentioned management and clinical benefits.