OREANDA-NEWS. GE Healthcare has been chosen by the Medical Imaging Antilles-Guyane (IMAG) purchasing group in France to lead a consortium providing a new cloud imaging platform which will allow vastly improved collaboration between clinicians in Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guyana. The clinicians will be able to share diagnostic images of patients, and harness the expertise of colleagues and specialists across the three regions.

The project, financially supported by the Ministry of Health in France (Agences Regionales de SantЁ¦), aims to create better patient care by providing innovative, on-demand tools for hospital imaging centres and general practitioners throughout the three regions. One important objective is to advance medical care in remote communities, where the GE Healthcare cloud platform will use telemedicine to address patient needs.

Yvon Marie-Sainte, General Manager of the GCS SIS-Martinique and IMAG Coordinator said: "This is a major investment to improve patient care and overall healthcare efficiency across the regions. Many of the one million inhabitants in Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guyana are living in dispersed, remote areas, far away from established healthcare services. The online imaging platform means that our doctors will be able to receive images of patients in nearly real-time and collaborate with colleagues and specialists overseas, enhancing cross-regional expertise."

In addition to the cloud platform which enables clinicians to collaborate in a secure environment and a pay-as-you-go model, the deal includes GE Healthcare's Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) to store and share images and information across the region, its Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) with Universal Viewer, that allows radiologists and clinicians to access advanced tools and patient history from a single desktop, Radiology Information System (RIS) and collaboration services.

Nic David, General Manager, GE Healthcare IT, France, said: "This is excellent news for the clinicians and patients of Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guyana. Take stroke as an example, one of the most common illnesses and causes of death. The new cloud platform will allow stronger collaboration between the three regions, and for example a neurologist will be able to provide expertise to a local, non-specialist healthcare professional, with all the patient data and images at their fingertips."

The first phase of the deployment is commencing soon and it will include the deployment of service offering with nine pilot sites within six months: the hospitals in the Martinique, Guadeloupe, Cayenne, Basse-Terre, West-Guyanese, two private imaging centres in Martinique, a private radiology center in Saint Martin and the Medical Surgery Center in Kourou.

The total duration of the contract is up to 12 years and it is renewed after four and eight years. Several companies will be collaborating under GE Healthcare's lead, including MiPiH, IDO-In, EDL, CGTR, Covalia, MediaServ and MЁ¦dicaraibe.

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world. GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter - great people and technologies taking on tough challenges. From medical imaging, software & IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions, GE Healthcare helps medical professionals deliver great healthcare to their patients.