Ed explains: "Ronald Ruijs, the founder of RVC, made the gastroenterology part and the reporting of RVC Clinical Assistant in co-creation together with one of our former Gastroenterology doctors. They designed the solution for image storage and reporting with a knowledge tree structure. In the wake of Gastroenterology, Pulmonary Medicine also switched to RVC Clinical Assistant.
"In 2013, I took over the management of RVC Clinical Assistant from my colleague. The arrival of a new Gastroenterology center was a good time to take over the management. Due to the limitations of our storage system, Cardiology shortly afterwards asked whether there were possibilities to store catheterization images in RVC Clinical Assistant. As part of a starting PACS-2 process, we have started a pilot with the Cardiology department. This was ultimately the start of a great PACS2 project."
From local to central
"Approximately 18 specialisms now use RVC Clinical Assistant. We therefore have a hospital-wide package. You see that there is an increasing need to put everything in a clear central location. There are still departments that ask us: "Where should we leave the images and data? Should we store that in HiX or RVC Clinical Assistant?". From my point of view, that is in RVC Clinical Assistant, and therefore the RVC Clinical Repository (RVC VNA+).
After all, that's how it started. In the hospital you used to have local servers in many departments where images were stored. Local storage capacities sometimes broke down or were full. Images were then not stored centrally, making them difficult to access.
In the ICT department, the question then arises from the department what the best place is to store images centrally. Because we have opted for RVC Clinical Assistant in the past, we advise departments to use this software. When we started the PACS-2 project, there was an inventory among many departments whether they also wanted to join. Meanwhile, every department that was interested in this, is connected. What is still to come now comes from the demand of the business."
Innovative developments
Within the collaboration between RVC and the IJsselland Hospital, there has always been room for innovation. A good example of this is XDS, which arose from a request from the IJsselland Hospital to be able to exchange images with other hospitals within the region. Initially, the approach was to be able to exchange radiology images and PACS-2 images. Ed: "That was a nice and also very radical development, where a lot of energy and effort was put into making it successful. It also succeeded, I may say. XDS was a very big innovation, which we have benefited from enormously."
With this, RVC has shown that they offer a good platform for data exchange in healthcare.
Knowlegde sharing
Every year RVC organizes an event for the managers in the hospitals. During these events, new releases are shared and customer cases are discussed. Ed: "You always hear new things from other customers and gain product knowledge. I think that's very important and also nice. There is always enough space to talk with other customers about products and solutions. It is also important that, in a growing organization like yours, you always get to know which new colleagues have joined. Then you immediately know the person behind the name."
Cooperation
"I like that you always think along in solutions, which makes the collaboration very pleasant. I think it is very important that RVC is a compact organization, despite the fact that you have grown. You have skilled employees and are customer-oriented."