Enterprise Imaging Repository (EIR)

Prior to 2012, NSW Health hospitals had similar imaging systems, but not all of these systems were linked, or able to digitally share patient images and reports. CDs and DVDs were used for sharing patient imaging, creating challenges for clinicians wanting to view and discuss patient images across different hospitals.

Although clinicians could share written radiology reports, they were unable to share high-resolution images with each other. Those wanting to share and discuss diagnostic data on images were also unable to do so.

Additionally, if patients were referred for treatment at multiple hospitals (which is common), radiology imaging could be repeated unnecessarily. Clinicians often opted to save time and repeat scans and studies rather than hunt down images stored in systems at other hospitals. This also posed challenges when previous imaging was needed to be compared to newer studies.

The EIR went live across NSW Health in February 2012 and today holds more than 34 million diagnostic studies, each consisting of multiple images.

This means that irrespective of which NSW public hospital a patient is treated at, their clinician will have immediate access to their historic and current radiology images and reports.

EIR gives clinicians the opportunity to collaborate early with each other, make faster and more accurate diagnoses and improve patient care. Likewise, the state’s new RIS-PACS platform uses the EIR to facilitate its image storage needs.

As part of the ongoing system improvements, the EIR was migrated to AWS in May 2022 and is now fully operational within the Cloud, providing significant additional benefits to clinicians and patients across NSW. Additional enhancements in 2022 will allow the sharing of secure Non-DICOM photos and clinical chat sessions within the NSW Health network.