Christie Group, ESI Technologies, and Network Appliance implement one of the top imaging archive systems in Canada at Sainte-Justine UHC Montréal, August 9, 2006 – Christie Group Ltd., medical imaging specialists, with its partners, ESI Technologies and Network Appliance, have rejuvenated the storage architecture and PACS application at Sainte-Justine UHC by implementing one of the largest and most advanced storage archiving systems in Canada. Thanks to technology developed by Network Appliance, this system is a technological showcase that makes Sainte-Justine UHC a benchmark for the storage and management of digital medical imaging. This new system makes it possible to link a number of servers in a storage network, and to integrate existing equipment.

(From left to right) Alex Delisle, Vice President, Sales and Marketing ESI Technologies Inc. Khiem Dao, Executive Director St-Justine University Health Centre Jeff Goldstein, General Manager Canada Network Appliance Inc. Robert Vachon, President Christie group Ltd.

The integration of the NAS technology developed by Network Appliance, the leader in unified storage systems, and the Fuji SYNAPSE PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) implemented by the Christie Group, creates an open computer architecture that is organized as a network, and that permits the input, digitization, transmission, display, processing, analysis, and archiving of digital medical images originating from multiple diagnostic imaging modalities. This system has the dual advantage of reducing the number of consultations with radiologists and improving the services provided to the public. This is achieved through the significant reduction of the time it takes to display each of the 150,000 examinations that are carried out at the institution every year.

More medical imaging storage options
The new digital image management and storage system implemented by Christie Group, ESI, and Network Appliance now makes it possible to optimize the utilization of the network that has been in place since 2001, and to improve access to images. As a result, all of the computer systems will benefit from this improvement, including laboratories, pharmacies, and viewing stations at Sainte-Justine UHC, because all data transfers will fully use the institution’s current bandwidth. This system can also be expanded indefinitely as storage needs increase, and can fulfil the legal requirements for medical file storage that must be respected by Québec hospitals in terms of special reports and examinations, including digital images.

This technological innovation means that, after long-term archiving, it now takes between 5 and 6 seconds to access and display an image that previously took between 45 and 60 seconds. This improvement reduces the complexity of the systems and eliminates several short-term storage steps.

A more powerful and more advanced system
The NAS at Sainte-Justine offers many benefits: it is more resistant to computer attacks; it offers the option of restoring the last image saved; and it operates in a Windows environment.

The Fuji SYNAPSE PACS application, which uses the Internet Explorer browser, is the only PACS user interface at Sainte-Justine UHC. Thanks to its integrated Web tools, Fuji SYNAPSE allows radiologists and clinicians to accomplish their tasks at any one of workstations at Sainte-Justine UHC, whether inside or outside of the institution.

The capacity of the system and the flexibility of the new PACS infrastructure, paired with the iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) protocol, means that far less equipment is required for storing data than the previous archiving systems. As such, the storage and availability of images generated by all of the medical departments at Sainte-Justine UHC is assured for the next four years. This includes the images from Nuclear Medicine, Radiology, Ultrasound, CT, MRI, and many others.

The new options for on-screen viewing will also make it possible to generate substantial operating savings, thanks to the simpler method of storage on hard discs rather than DVDs. This method offers a much larger storage capacity of 12 terabytes (12,000 Gb), which is equivalent to a library of 1,300 DVDs or more.

By installing this new and more powerful infrastructure that has superior storage capabilities, ESI has met the need for specialized storage resources and storage infrastructure.

About Sainte-Justine UHC
The Sainte-Justine University Hospital Centre is the largest mother-child centre in Canada. It has a complement of 450 beds, accepts 19,000 admissions each year, and receives 60,000 patients through its Emergency Department and another 200,000 at its Outpatients Clinic. With more than 4,000 employees, it is one of the four largest paediatric centres in North America. Affiliated with the University of Montréal, the Sainte-Justine UHC is also the largest paediatric training centre in Quebec, and is a leader in paediatric healthcare in Canada, welcoming approximately 4,000 students per year. The Sainte-Justine UHC and its research centre boast a very impressive international reputation. Sainte-Justine UHC will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2007.

About ESI Technologies
ESI Technologies specializes in the development and management of efficient, high performance, flexible and secure technological infrastructures that meet or exceed each client’s specific business goals. It offers consulting services and implements a wide range of solutions to ensure the security, availability, and performance of critical data, applications, and networks. It also deploys Web and Windows applications in Microsoft.NET environments. Through its proprietary Windows application ACTION, ESI also offers an integrated suite of flexible, user-friendly, and scalable business solutions. ESI Technologies is based in Montréal, with offices in Québec City and Toronto. For more information concerning ESI Technologies, please visit www.esitechnologies.com.

About Network Appliance
Network Appliance is a world leader in unified storage solutions for today’s data-intensive enterprise. Since its inception in 1992, Network Appliance has provided leading-edge technology, product, and partnerships that enhance data management. Information about Network Appliance™ solutions and services is available at www.netapp.com.

About Christie Group Ltd.
Please click here for the profile of Christie Group Ltd.

For further information, please contact us at gmail@christiegrp.com or as follows:

Christie Group Ltd.
516 Rue du Parc
St-Eustache, QC
J7R 5B2

Tel.: 800-361-8750  |  Fax: 450-472-9410

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