An ambitious new project called the Regional Image Sharing Platform (RISP), has recently been trialled in four clinical specialties at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) and Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT).

The programme aims to introduce radical change in the way clinical images are accessed, allowing clinicians to instantly access and retrieve patient images, imaging histories and clinical reports for patients under their care.

It will be quicker and more effective than the current system for image sharing, which has inherent delays due to manual intervention and can take over four hours.

RISP will soon be available at 17 trusts across the West Midlands and will improve regional clinical access to diagnostic imaging.

The platform, which will benefit all clinicians, has been made possible due to an investment from NHS England to support the 100,000 Genomes Project.

The 100,000 Genomes Project involves collecting and decoding 100,000 whole human genomes – complete sets of people’s genes – and linking this genomic data with their medical history and imaging to enable scientists and doctors to better understand certain rare diseases and cancers.

UHB is the lead organisation for the West Midlands Genomic Medicine Centre (WMGMC), one of 13 GMCs established by NHS England.

RISP has been designed, developed and implemented by a core team from UHB, working closely with Insignia Medical Systems, who have provided their industry-leading InSight Sharing Service.

The project team has also worked closely with regional IT, PACS, information governance and clinical teams at the other trusts.

RISP is now live across Birmingham, and the implementation of the platform is underway across the remaining West Midlands trusts, with an expected completion data of summer 2018.

Hilary Fanning, Director of Research, Development and Innovation at UHB, said: “The Regional Image Sharing Platform beginning to be rolled out is fantastic news for trusts across the West Midlands.”

“The region-wide infrastructure it will create will be a great benefit to clinicians, improving patient care and clinical outcomes.

“The platform will, for example, facilitate wider multidisciplinary clinical decision making and diagnosis in oncology, rare diseases, and other clinical specialties.

“We are delighted to be working with Insignia to bring these added benefits to patients across the region.”

For more information about RISP contact Pankaj Das or Barnaby Waters.

Pankaj Das, Programme Manager

Tel: 0121 371 2774
Email: Pankaj.Das@uhb.nhs.uk

Barnaby Waters, Imaging Technical Lead

Tel: 0121 371 2342
Email: Barnaby.Waters@uhb.nhs.uk