Home > News & Events > Press Releases > 2007 Archive > Agfa HealthCare Certifies EqualLogic’s iSCSI SAN to Support RIS/PACS – Radiology Information System and Picture Archiving and Communications System

Agfa HealthCare Certifies EqualLogic’s iSCSI SAN to Support RIS/PACS – Radiology Information System and Picture Archiving and Communications System

Thomas Memorial Hospital Deploys EqualLogic SAN with Agfa HealthCare PACS

Nashua, N.H.-February 7, 2007- EqualLogic®, the leading provider of enterprise-class iSCSI storage area network (SAN) solutions, today announced that Agfa HealthCare has certified EqualLogic's PS Series storage arrays to support Agfa’s IMPAX® Radiology Information System and Picture Archiving and Communication System (RIS/PACS) used by healthcare facilities around the world.

Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston, West Virginia, is deploying the EqualLogic storage solution to meet requirements for 27 terabytes of online storage and a disaster recovery site to support the most advanced set of medical imaging services in the region. These imaging services range from radiology, bone density, digital mammography with computer aided detection, nuclear medicine, ultrasound, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and CT scan.

When evaluating vendors for a new PACS and radiology information system, Thomas Memorial mandated that bidders support iSCSI storage, based on the outstanding performance, price and manageability of its previous EqualLogic iSCSI SAN.  Agfa responded to Thomas Memorial’s requirements and completed rigid validation and certification testing of EqualLogic’s products with its IMPAX family at Agfa’s Waterloo, Ontario, lab.

“Working with iSCSI, and EqualLogic specifically, gave Agfa a big competitive advantage during our search for a RIS/PACS supplier,” said Mark Boggs, IT director at Thomas Memorial Hospital. “It was a no-brainer for us to continue with EqualLogic because of how affordable and simple their SAN is to use.  Who wants to spend hours a week managing a SAN?  I know I don’t, and I don’t want to pay anyone to do it either.  The cost of the storage we bought for our PACS environment would have been prohibitive if we had gone with one of the Fibre Channel SANs some vendors pushed.”

EqualLogic’s PS Series midrange enterprise storage arrays are an ideal fit for RIS/PACS environments, especially at medium-sized healthcare institutions that can’t afford the up-front and operational costs or the complexity of Fibre Channel SANs.  The modular scalability of an EqualLogic SAN makes it easy for hospitals to add the necessary capacity as regulations like HIPAA or technological shifts increase the amount of data that must be stored. 

For example, Thomas Memorial’s data storage requirements have grown significantly with the PACS deployment and the adoption of a cutting-edge 64-slice CT scanner.  Previously, like many hospitals, Thomas Memorial had a 16-slice CT scanner, but since the new system takes four times as many cross-section pictures or “slices” of the body, it has driven up the amount of storage the IT team needs to provision for CT scans.

Thomas Memorial’s storage deployment for RIS/PACS will consist of an EqualLogic PS400E system supporting production imaging services in the hospital’s new imaging facility, and another PS400E system providing a mirrored backup environment across the street.  After an image is written to the backup archive, Thomas Memorial will burn a second copy to a Plasmon Ultra Density Optical storage system.

“There is nothing more important to a hospital’s IT group than ensuring that its medical support services and diagnostic data are always available, and EqualLogic is committed to serving this need,” said John Joseph, vice president of marketing at EqualLogic.  “Earning Agfa HealthCare’s PACS certification marks another milestone for the acceptance of EqualLogic storage in critical healthcare environments.” Agfa’s certification of the EqualLogic PS Series of storage arrays applies to the IMPAX family of RIS/PACS products, including: IMPAX 6.0, IMPAX DS3000 and DS1000, IMPAX EL, IMPAX EL Basix®, IMPAX Off-line Archive, IMPAX EL Radiology Information Service (RIS), IMPAX Enterprise, IMPAX ES, and IMPAX for Radiology.

Thomas Memorial is one of EqualLogic’s many healthcare customers, a few of which include Fulton County Health Center, Johnson Memorial Hospital, LifeLink Foundation, MediSync, Navicure, and Nevada Rural Hospital Partners.

About Thomas Memorial Hospital

Thomas Memorial Hospital (www.thomaswv.org) is a 260-bed, not-for-profit healthcare resource located in South Charleston, West Virginia. Founded sixty years ago, Thomas offers supportive, compassionate care. Thomas offers a wide range of innovative services, including the Thomas Cancer Center, our Sweet Dreams Maternity Services, Sleep Diagnostic Center, Pediatric Care, CareCenter 24, Outpatient Services, Home Health, Physical Therapy and more.

About EqualLogic
EqualLogic® makes data storage systems that radically simplify the way mid-size and large businesses store and protect information. EqualLogic’s award-winning PS Series storage area network (SAN) solution provides sophisticated management capabilities that reduce the time and money IT staff spend on storage. EqualLogic serves thousands of customers in 35 countries from its headquarters in Nashua, New Hampshire, and offices throughout Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit http://www.equallogic.com.


EqualLogic® is a registered trademark of EqualLogic®, Inc. Other marks belong to their respective owners.

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