Australian teleradiology pioneer Imaging the South today announced that in conjunction with the West Australian Department of Health, clinical data stored by the practice will be made available to all WA public hospitals on the WAPACS system effective immediately.

“This is a major step forward,” said Angela Whittington, CEO of Imaging the South, “and something we have been very keen to introduce for some years now.”

The system which has been in development for several months, will allow  the secure transmission of patient diagnostic images from Imaging the South’s ITSLink PACS to the Department of Health’s WAPACS system in use at major tertiary hospitals around the state.    Importantly, the link is bi-directional, which means that images from tertiary hospitals will also be able to be transmitted to ITS-Link, which will mean that ITS radiologists will have access to electronic versions of previous images available to them.

“Our team has been working very closely with the Department of Health staff to bring this project to fruition” said Peter Tually, IT Director for Imaging the South. “The Xray’s and CT scans of patients living in rural and regional W.A. who require urgent medical transfer to Perth will be available to specialist surgeons in a matter of minutes. The end result is that the doctor can better plan the appropriate treatment well before the patient arrives. It’s all about improving access to health care services and improving lives. That’s the business we’re in”.

The arrangement makes use of ITS’ private wide-area network provided by technology partner, Telstra.

Imaging the South Information Technology staff worked alongside staff from the Department of Health in commissioning the system. “It’s been an absolute pleasure to work alongside such a talented team and we look forward to doing so again on other leading-edge projects in the near future” said Mr. Tually.

Dr Nick Pang, Clinical Director, said “our Clinical team looks forward to now being one step closer to our colleagues in the teaching hospitals in Perth – enabling us to have real time discussions about our patients with them.”

Imaging the South is a privately-owned provider of radiology and teleradiology services based in Bunbury, Western Australia. The practice provides services all over regional Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. Established by Dr Johnny Walker in 1995, the practice has flourished to become the leading provider of services for regional Australia.