EmailThe trust said that its breast screening service unit is the first in the south west peninsula region to go fully digital by using the new software to integrate technology from GE and Siemens and its Picture Archiving Communication System (Pacs).
Royal Cornwall said that the main spending on the move from film to digital imaging for mammography will be at its Mermaid Centre in Truro, which has three static mammographic units that annually provides breast screening for 25,000 women.
"I believe the 700 healthcare professionals who have access to Pacs – including ward sisters, GPs, radiographers and surgeons – will not only find the digital imaging quality better but also far more convenient to work with," said Alan Brimacombe, clinical imaging Pacs manager for the trust.
"It's a huge leap forwards for healthcare professionals across the region to be able to share mammograms and other test images. Film would generally just sit in one place but now we can distribute a wide variety of imaging data around the region to where it is needed and, crucially, they can do this on one system with one log-on so they don't have to jump between different software packages."
Although the screening equipment is based in Truro, the Pacs suite links 11 healthcare centres in the region. The trust said it asked CSC to coordinate putting together a package of digital mammography for processing and storage equipment from multiple vendors under its role as the local service provider for Pacs in the region.
Royal Cornwall said the new technology will also facilitate "full integration" between its Pacs solution and the National Breast Screening System, which is part of a key deliverable set by the Department of Health to enable all breast screening units across England to become digital by the end of 2010.
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