Agfa Completes Installation of Teleradiology Network At Three Military Bases in Southeast.

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J.--(BW HealthWire)--Aug. 26, 1999--

First Healthcare Initiative of Its Kind

Linking Three Major Military Branches

Agfa Corporation has just completed installation of a teleradiology network linking the resources of the U. S. Army, Air Force and Marines at three military bases in the southeast United States. The bases are: Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon, Georgia; Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, South Carolina; and Albany Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia.

Teleradiology Network Is Interservice Pilot Project

The teleradiology network is part of an interservice "TRICARE Initiative" pilot project instituted by the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marines in 1996. The three branches are researching the benefits of teleradiology by sharing resources among bases in the southeastern U.S.

Using the network, a technician at Shaw or Albany exposes conventional X-ray film, digitizes the images on an Agfa scanner, then transmits the scans over the network to a radiologist at Eisenhower, who reads them remotely.

Using voice recognition technology, the radiologist dictates a report into a microphone linked to a computer, which translates that dictation into words that appear simultaneously on the video display with a high degree of accuracy. That report can then be transmitted over the network back to the clinic.

The teleradiology network went online in early June following Agfa's installation of an ADC Compact Review Station at Eisenhower and a film digitizer and OCRII Work Station each at the Shaw and Albany bases.

"When we moved to the TRICARE system," said Commander Mark Bernier, Medical Service Corps, United States Navy, officer-in-charge for the Branch Medical Clinic in Albany, GA, "Eisenhower became the lead agent for the video-teleradiology network. We foresee the new system being very cost-effective for us and anticipate a quick payback due to resource-sharing initiatives and economies of scale." Bernier noted that the teleradiology system is already producing faster, accurate results, and has enhanced productivity adding a boost to the TRICARE benefit.

"One of the goals of the pilot project has been to strategically place the Agfa equipment at a hub and several outlying sites and assess the cost-savings of that new teleradiology environment," said Colonel Alan Mease, director of the Center for Total Access, which is coordinating and providing technical assistance to the TRICARE Initiative. "We want to see how the network affects basic business practices."

Mease noted that improved TRICARE efficiencies being tracked by the Center include better quality control, recordkeeping and reading of images; lower travel costs; less outside contracting; and greater access to specialty care.

Agfa Corporation is a subsidiary of the Afga-Gevaert Group, one of the world's leading imaging companies, headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium. Agfa develops, produces, and markets analog and digital systems, primarily for the graphics, medical, and industrial radiography and consumer imaging and photography markets. In May, 1999, Agfa acquired the capital stock of SDI Holding Corp., the parent company of Sterling Diagnostic Imaging, headquartered in Greenville, SC. Agfa Corporation, headquartered in Ridgefield Park, NJ, employs 5,000. Worldwide, Agfa's annual sales are over $5 billion.

Please visit Agfa's web site at www.AgfaMedical.com