South West NHS Consortium Chooses Wellbeing Software for Integrated Radiology Data Hosting and Information Management Solution

Five NHS Trusts across Devon and Cornwall have further integrated their radiology services, with a combined data hosting and information management solution from Wellbeing Software.

The NHS Trusts, which form the South West Consortium group, have collectively signed up to a combined data hosting and Radiology Information System (RIS) from connected healthcare specialist Wellbeing Software. Wellbeing now not only supplies the management technology underpinning radiology diagnostics, treatment and reporting across the five Trusts, but also manages the hosting of all data generated by those Trusts.

The SW Consortium was formed in 2006 following the national programme for I.T to provide RIS/PACS across England to facilitate the creation of integrated technology solutions and, ultimately, enhanced patient care. Wellbeing’s market-leading oncology information management system, Cris, was one of its first deployments. The single instance platform manages all the clinical information required by radiology departments, and ensures that clinicians have access to the same centralised, paperless information source.

When the Consortium decided to re-tender its data hosting services at the same time as renewing its RIS contract, Wellbeing was able to offer a highly secure, combined hosting and data management service. The change of hosting, which was completed in June 2018, has reduced the Consortium costs and offers a single point of contact for both the RIS and hosting provider. Wellbeing also minimised downtime during the transition, and ensured all patient and audit data was migrated smoothly and effectively from the previous hosting platform.

Each year, radiology services across the Consortium see thousands of patients in conjunction with other healthcare services including GPs and hospital-based specialisms. By providing a single digital platform for sharing radiology images and workflows, Cris system enables far smoother collaboration between these different services, and is helping the Consortium to build a more connected approach to healthcare across the region.

Neil Schofield, Senior Manager and SRO for the Project at the Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust, said:

The decision to manage our data hosting through Wellbeing Software, in conjunction with renewing our Cris contract, is a good working example of continuing collaboration for the SW Trusts in Devon and Cornwall which started in 2006 via the then national programme.

We have built up an extensive imaging network which provides a single instance, image sharing and remote reporting for all the patients in Devon and Cornwall. The team at Wellbeing Software have done a great job in delivering this on time with an elegant and effective technical solution. We look forward to our continued collaboration in the future.

Chris Yeowart, Director at Wellbeing Software Group, said:

There’s no better accolade for our offering than the SW Consortium choosing to not only renew their Cris contract, but to add a whole new data hosting service into the mix. We’re dedicated to helping healthcare service providers share information and work together more effectively, so the ethos behind a combined consortium like this one is absolutely in keeping with what we do.

The SW Consortium covers a broad geographic area, so Cris can have a powerful impact in enabling remote and mobile working, and ensuring that services and clinicians in very different locations can still work together effectively. The ultimate goal, of course, is the best possible patient care.