Download as a PDFPUKKA-J PROVIDES FLEXIBLE SOLUTION FOR VELINDRE CANCER CENTRE, WALES
Two DICOM archives supplied for Radiotherapy Store connecting into Hospital network
Velindre Cancer Centre, a Division of Velindre NHS Trust, required a DICOM archive to store all image, plan and dose matrix data, used in the radiotherapy planning and delivery process of the hospital. The system also needed to be able to connect seamlessly into the existing structure of the department and allow for rapid storage and retrieval of the data. Pukka-j not only provided a robust solution for the immediate requirements, but in addition, developed a Radiotherapy Store that can be easily migrated to the radiology/radiotherapy compliant PACS system, once radiology PACS is fully developed and proven to handle all RT objects.
Velindre Cancer Centre provides specialist cancer services to 1.5 million people living in South East Wales and is in fact the main centre for cancer treatment in Wales. One of the ten largest cancer centres in the UK, the Centre’s activity has increased significantly over the years. They now see over 5,000 new cancer referrals and around 50,000 outpatient appointments each year. The Division employs 600 staff and has a budget of around £22 million. When a patient is referred to Velindre Cancer Centre, they come under the care of Clinical and Medical Oncologists who specialise in the non-surgical treatment of cancer. The Centre offers treatments including radiotherapy and chemotherapy, much of which is now done on a day-case basis. Although Velindre Hospital remains the main focus for services, there are also a large number of peripheral outpatient clinics held at other hospitals throughout South East Wales, as well as out-based chemotherapy services.
The Centre stipulated in its specification for the new system that it must be able to integrate into the hospital network, to which all medical imaging devices and planning systems are connected. It should also be able to connect to all other systems on the local and wider hospital networks via standard network connections.
There was also a requirement that back up, or mirroring facility, be available to enable a rapid disaster recovery, and should the mirrored solution be chosen then the two systems would be located approximately five miles apart, for which a direct (low bandwidth 1-10Mb/s dependent on time of day) connection would be available.
Tony Millin, Principal Radiotherapy Physicist, Velindre NHS Trust says,
We were looking for a solution to our long-term storage needs. Pukka-j’s proposal ‘ticked all the boxes’ for us - providing us with sufficient capacity for the foreseeable future and easy expansion in the future. Pukka-j offered a cost effective solution, connecting with all of our equipment and seamlessly integrating into our existing network. We feel our confidence has been justified.
The Pukka-j solution was to provide two DICOM Archives, (Master plus Slave), located in separate buildings, which for ease of system maintenance and robustness are run on a LINUX operating system. UNIX operating systems are proven to offer the most robust system for mission critical scenarios and are less likely to be targeted by computer viruses. It handles standard CT images, Digitally Reconstructed Radiogaphs (DRRs), Electronic Portal Images (EPIDs), RT structures, RT treatment plans, RT doses matrices plus other patient information, with the source data being supplied from various equipment vendors’ systems.
Radiotherapy Archive Schematic.
In addition, Pukka-j’s developed the departmental radiotherapy specialist DICOM store to be compatible with the CfH NCRS aspirations. At the moment all traditional radiology PACS has limited or no support for handling the complex mix of DICOM RT images and their associated objects. The Pukka-j Radiotherapy Store co-exists with PACS, so that as and when radiology PACS is fully developed the radiotherapy store data can easily be migrated.
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