New storage system helps NHS trust with diabetic diagnosis

Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust has installed storage systems to enable faster and more accurate diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy.

The NHS trust has implemented two content addressed storage systems from vendor EMC Centera, to provide easy access and secure long-term archiving of some 100,000 digital retinal images.

Patient data generated by 100 optometry practices in the area will be consolidated and information made accessible to doctors within the trust.

‘It will significantly enhance our ability to quickly and accurately diagnose diabetic retinopathy, because doctors will have better and faster access to the crucial information they need to make decisions,’ said Mohammed Waeed, senior IT specialist at Heart of England.

A Department of Health directive requires all diabetic patients to have their eyes screened by December 2007.

‘We needed a robust digital screening service for accessing patients’ retinopathy images,’ said Glafeus Abayoni, senior project manager at the trust.

‘Previously we had an analogue system where none of the images was being stored. Every time a diagnosis was being made, the patient had to be present.’

The local health authority was given £1.45m to set up the service, which was split between 11 primary care trusts.

Optometrists participating in a regional diabetic retinopathy screening programme will be linked to the Trust’s IT environment via a virtual private network.

NHS trust returns to national plan

NHS IT programme is a question of faith