NWT Hospitals Go Filmless

YELLOWKNIFE (April 28, 2009) – The Inuvik Hospital will be the latest Northwest Territories hospital to go filmless, (tomorrow) following Stanton Territorial Hospital in late March and the H.H. Williams Hospital earlier this month. Physicians and technologists will no longer have to create or view diagnostic images using film. Instead, they will be using the Diagnostic Imaging Picture Archiving and Communications System (DI/PACS) to capture, store, distribute and review all patient diagnostic images.There are numerous benefits of moving to DI/PACS technology:

• faster report turn-around times which results in faster diagnosis and decisions relating to treatment;
• flexible viewing for physicians and hospital staff (clinicians can consult on images at the same time from different locations);
• no longer will we have the costs associated with “hard copy” film, developing and storage;
• no lost or misplaced images resulting in unnecessary duplication of exams; and

DI/PACS is a digital system. Just like a camera that used to use film and now generates digital images that are viewed on a home computer, DI/PACS operates by using equipment to produce and view digital images on computers.

Media representatives in Inuvik are invited to a walk-through of the new system.

Date: April 29, 2009
Location: Inuvik Hospital Small Boardroom
Time: 11:00am

For more information contact:

Damien Healy
Communications
Department of Health & Social Services
Government of the Northwest Territories
Tel: (867) 920-8927
E-mail: damien_healy@gov.nt.ca