International medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra (STO: SECT B) has signed a contract to provide radiology teams and other healthcare professionals throughout the NHS in Scotland with the cloud-based enterprise imaging service Sectra One Cloud. The agreement with NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) will span across 15 NHS boards and provide tools that will support healthcare teams as they review and report on around 5 million radiology examinations a year working across NHS Scotland organizations.
Sectra will provide a fully managed software as a service (SaaS) to all of Scotland’s 14 territorial NHS boards and to NHS Golden Jubilee, which also hosts the Scottish National Radiology Reporting Service. NHS organizations will utilize radiology, breast imaging, and orthopaedics modules available through the enterprise imaging service.
Sectra will engage with national and local teams across NHS Scotland to deliver the new agreement, which will replace a contract with Scotland’s current supplier that is due to end in 2026.
Implementation will involve the migration of more than 55 million radiology studies to a single instance of Sectra’s enterprise imaging service. Managed through Sectra One Cloud, the service will provide ongoing support and seamless upgrades for users, local business continuity within each NHS board, as well as enabling ease of scalability for NHS Scotland’s future requirements. Once deployed, radiology teams will use Sectra’s enterprise imaging technology to interrogate as many as five million radiology examinations a year.
Mary Morgan, Chief Executive, NHS National Services Scotland, said: “Our new partnership with Sectra will provide Scotland’s NHS radiology teams with an enterprise imaging service that will support our professionals as they deliver efficient and effective diagnoses for patients. The service creates additional potential to support the direction set out in the new Scotland Radiology Model and opens up further possibilities around enhanced cross-site working.”
All of NHS Scotland’s acute radiology, orthopaedic and breast screening services will be covered by the new contract, which also creates the potential to extend support to additional diagnostic services in the future and allow the exploration of further technology, such as the use of Sectra’s platform to more easily procure and integrate AI applications into existing radiology workflows.
Radiologists and reporting radiographers will benefit from a single log-in profile, allowing them to work consistently with personal configurations from any location. Clinical teams will continue to benefit from seamless access to imaging for their patients from a single national source, regardless of where in Scotland imaging acquisition has taken place.
Additionally, enhanced collaboration across clinical specialties will be supported by having a single system. For example, information that can support surgery decisions and planning, will be easily accessed by both the specialist radiologists and orthopaedic teams.
The contract was signed in December 2023 for an initial 10-year term, with two optional extension periods.
Jane Rendall, UK and Ireland managing director for Sectra, said: “The potential for NHS Scotland from embracing a cloud-based enterprise imaging system is exciting. This will create new opportunities for innovation and for collaboration between Scotland’s NHS radiology teams. Scotland’s NHS boards are known around the world for delivering excellence in care, and I look forward to Sectra supporting their professionals in the years ahead.”
Sectra’s enterprise imaging solution provides a unified strategy for all imaging needs while lowering operational costs. The scalable and modular solution, with a VNA at its core, allows healthcare providers to grow from ology to ology and from enterprise to enterprise. Visit Sectra’s website to read more about Sectra and why it’s top-ranked in “Best in KLAS”.
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