Radiology teams and other healthcare professionals throughout the NHS in Scotland are to benefit from a new agreement that will see a cloud-based enterprise imaging service delivered across 15 NHS boards by international medical imaging IT company Sectra.
The agreement with NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) will provide tools that will support healthcare teams as they review and report on around 5 million radiology examinations a year, working across NHS Scotland organisations.
The fully managed software as a service (SaaS), Sectra One Cloud, will be used by all of Scotland’s 14 territorial NHS boards and by NHS Golden Jubilee, which also hosts the Scottish National Radiology Reporting Service. NHS organisations will utilise the radiology, breast imaging, and orthopaedics modules available through the enterprise imaging service.
Sectra will engage with national and local teams across NHS Scotland to deliver the new agreement, which will replace a contract with Scotland’s current supplier that is due to end in 2026.
Implementation will involve the migration of more than 55 million radiology studies to a single instance of Sectra’s enterprise imaging service. Managed through Sectra One Cloud, the service will provide ongoing support and seamless upgrades for users, local business continuity within each NHS board, as well as enabling ease of scalability for NHS Scotland’s future requirements.
Mary Morgan, Chief Executive, NHS National Services Scotland, said: “Our new partnership with Sectra will provide Scotland’s NHS radiology teams with an enterprise imaging service that will support our professionals as they deliver efficient and effective diagnoses for patients. The service creates additional potential to support the direction set out in the new Scotland Radiology Model and opens up further possibilities around enhanced cross-site working.”
All of NHS Scotland’s acute radiology, orthopaedic and breast screening services will be covered by the new contract, which also creates the potential to extend support to additional diagnostic services in the future and allow the exploration of further technology, such as the use of Sectra’s platform to more easily procure and integrate AI applications into existing radiology workflows.
Radiologists and reporting radiographers will benefit from a single log-in profile, allowing them to work consistently with personal configurations from any location. Clinical teams will continue to benefit from seamless access to imaging for their patients from a single national source, regardless of which board has carried out imaging acquisition.
Additionally, enhanced collaboration across clinical specialties will be supported by having a single system. For example, information that can support surgery decisions and planning, will be easily accessed by both the specialist radiologists and orthopaedic teams.
The contract was signed in December 2023 for an initial 10 year term, with two optional extension periods.
Jane Rendall, UK and Ireland managing director for Sectra, said: “The potential for NHS Scotland from embracing a cloud-based enterprise imaging system is exciting. This will create new opportunities for innovation and for collaboration between Scotland’s NHS radiology teams. Scotland’s NHS boards are known around the world for delivering excellence in care, and I look forward to Sectra supporting their professionals in the years ahead.”
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