Manipal Hospitals and Fujifilm India have announced a collaboration to leverage the latter’s digital technology to store sensitive medical documents and images. Dilip Jose, MD and CEO of Manipal Hospitals, told businessline that the medical facility would invest over ₹120 crore over a 10-year period to adopt the platform.

The 10-year agreement will provide Manipal Hospitals access to a large-scale picture archiving and communication system (PACS) powered by Fujifilm India. The PACS will eliminate the need for manual storage, retrieval, and sharing of sensitive information, films, and reports, according to senior doctors from the radiology department of Manipal Hospitals.

Jose said, “We have one central database where everything is stored for a patient, irrespective of where the patient has access to care. This increases patient safety; obviously, it’s an expensive way of maintaining records, but the service provided to the patient is significantly better. Secondly, we have more than 300 radiologists in the Manipal system, and this will allow them to collaborate across disciplines.”

Additionally, the system will enable storage of medical documents and images on secure offsite servers, while the PACS software enables their access via mobile devices and workstations anywhere in the world. The deployment will cover 23 hospitals and 45 teleradiology facilities in the Manipal Health Enterprises network. “The 10-year agreement can always be extended. This is the largest such integration in Asia, and it is the beginning; we intend to go down the path together,” said Jose.

Koji Wada, Managing Director, Fujifilm India, said, “Through this association, we aim to provide superior technological medical facilities that can help save lives and encourage patients to become more engaged in their personal care. We are determined to offer the highest standards of innovative and high-quality healthcare solutions in the country.”

Interoperability

With a modular design, expandable to all future centres of Manipal Hospitals, the Radiology Information System (RIS) PACS is available for radiology and cardiology specialities. It currently covers three million studies annually.

For patients, the RIS PACS will enable compliance through quick access to medical images from any Manipal Hospital across India; on-demand digital access to reports; and diagnosis from any radiologist or cardiologist across the country.

“The interoperability of this solution will accelerate digitisation across our network of hospitals and the penetration of clinical healthcare services across the network, making it convenient for clinicians and patients,” said Jose.

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