Enterprise imaging provider Insignia Medical Systems, based in the United Kingdom, has been selected to provide its regional sharing service to the West Midlands Genomic Medicine Center (WMGMC).
WMGMC, led by University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Foundation Trust, is one of 13 GMCs established to deliver NHS England’s 100,000 Genomes Project, and is unique among them in bringing together 17 acute NHS trusts across the West Midlands to provide regional image sharing.
The 100,000 Genomes Project, the largest of its kind in the world, aims to improve understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of rare diseases and cancer by combining the genomic data of participants with their medical records, also producing a resource for future research.
Working with all 17 partner trusts, Insignia will provide its InSight Sharing Service to deliver real-time regional clinical viewing of images to support delivery of the project.
The regional image sharing project is being led by a core team from UHB, working closely with Insignia and regional IT, PACS, and clinical teams. The first trusts are going live in the summer of 2017 and the complete project, across all 17 trusts, is expected to be completed by March 2018.
“We are exceptionally proud to have been awarded the contract to provide this ground-breaking sharing service to such a large number of West Midlands Trust,” says Richard Dormer, managing director of Insignia Medical Systems. “Sharing is an area we excel in, and we are looking forward to deploying this solution which will help provide a much-enhanced service to patients in the West Midlands.”
Hilary Fanning, director of research development and innovation at UHB, adds, “The primary purpose of this image sharing and transfer infrastructure is to support the work of the WMGMC delivery partners. However, the region-wide infrastructure it will create has the potential to extend beyond the life of the 100,000 Genomes Project, improving patient care and clinical outcomes, for example, by facilitating wider multidisciplinary clinical decision making and diagnosis in oncology, rare diseases, and other clinical specialities.”
The trusts involved include: University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, Wye Valley NHS Trust, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, George Elliot Hospital NHS Trust, Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
