HealthShare NSW has won a NSW Premier’s Award for a pioneering Enterprise Imaging Repository (EIR), claimed to be the first state-wide medical imaging repository in Australia. The EIR is a collaboration with  Fujitsu Australia, responsible for its implementation at more than 220 public hospitals across the state’s 15 Local Health Districts.

NSW Health says the new scalable medical imaging exchange will make a significant difference to patient care, especially for people who need treatment in multiple hospitals and also for those who live in rural and regional areas.

The EIR is vendor-neutral archive (VNA). This means that irrespective of which NSW public hospital a patient visits, doctors will have immediate access to their X-rays, scans and reports from across the state.

“The EIR is a truly trailblazing solution, not only here in Australia but also internationally. I'm not aware of an integrated imaging repository as large or as complex as what we have built here in NSW. Fujitsu has been a terrific partner throughout. Members of their project team have been fantastic and deserve this award as much as we do,” said Joe Hughes, Program Manager, Medical Imaging, HealthShare NSW

The volumes of activity are huge. The EIR is generating thousands of imaging studies each day and already has over 1.2 million stored with 85 million individual images. It also stores 17 million LHD patient records, two million of which have national Healthcare Identifiers.

The EIR is delivering benefits for:

Patients, by reducing unnecessary procedures and associated exposure to radiation;

Clinical staff, by supporting improved quality and safety of care as they can easily see previous images and reports for their patients irrespective of where the study was done; and

Local Health Districts, by reducing the cost of repeat procedures.

The NSW Premier’s Awards  shine a light on the work of individual public-sector employees, projects and partnerships providing excellent public service.