Royal Veterinary College

Visbion’s Leading-Edge Technology Employed by Royal Veterinary College

The Royal Veterinary College is the United Kingdom's largest, oldest and only independent veterinary school and one of the most highly regarded institutions of its kind in the world. The RVC’s small and large animal hospitals are internationally recognised clinical centres and treat over 20,000 patients per year. It is also a centre for excellence in teaching and a top level research institution. To be able to fulfil this triple role it was essential to be able to store image material in a reliable manner, which would allow easy access for students and staff in a cost and time-effective manner.

Need for Change
Moving to a digital environment and eliminating the need to print on paper or film, was a priority for RVC. Problems were caused by the amount of storage needed for all the printed materials, as well as the inevitable issue of lost and damaged films and records.

IT Manager, Patrick Fisher along with Dr Renate Weller, Radiologist at the Equine Referral Hospital and Christopher Lamb, Senior Radiologist at the Queen Mother Hospital for Small Animals, led the search for a digital solution.

Patrick Fisher said “After a lengthy search for a PACS supplier, we chose Visbion. As well as being a UK based company with an excellent reputation in the market, we were impressed by the fact that their PACS is not a human system made to fit in a veterinary environment. This is a customised veterinary solution with all the necessary veterinary fields, language and information in-built in the software.”

Customised Solution
Visbion’s Image Archive Enterprise Level was initially installed at RVC along with dual high resolution diagnostic workstations. The 1200 students and 600 staff are now able to access and manipulate images from any PC on campus, via the web, transforming teaching methods.

Over time, the system has grown to include the connection of more and more modalities. As well as CT and CR, images from other modalities including MRI, in-theatre fluoroscopy, many ultrasound machines and scintigraphy can be saved to PACS. A high brightness projector has been added to the radiology teaching room and they now have the added ability to scan and import films received for referred patients.

Next steps
RVC plan to provide on-line access to images for referring vets. By logging into the PACS via the web, they referring vet will be able to see their own patient’s images whilst access to all other images will be restricted.

Also planned is the connection of other surgical systems to the PACS including arthroscopy, endoscopy and bronchoscopy. Visbion’s Image Importer makes this possible by converting the video signal sent by old analogue modalities into a fully digital DICOM format before sending it to the PACS.

Reaping the Benefits
“Visbion has helped us transform our teaching at RVC. Students now have quick and easy universal access to the result of all our diagnostic imaging services throughout the facility” said Dr Renate Weller

Mr Lamb added “The introduction of the PACS has streamlined our clinical practice by reducing the incidence of lost images and by bringing all our imaging into one secure central archive. Visbion personnel have provided excellent support and been very willing to consider suggestions or questions that we have had about the PACS and Image Viewer functionality.”

Visbion is the UK’s market leader in providing digital image management solutions and its technology continues to enhance the services provided by teaching establishments, hospitals and practices throughout the country.