Today, 160 users in the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, including nearly 40 physicians for report creation, work daily with the new RIS. With RadCentre, users now have a unified interface for appointment scheduling, documentation, and reporting, significantly simplifying the radiology workflow.
Mesalvo won an IT tender from University Hospital RWTH Aachen in 2020, which marked the beginning of a comprehensive RIS installation in the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology. From the beginning, it was clear that due to the high number of future RIS users, this project would become one of the largest radiology projects in Mesalvo’s history. “Mesalvo's many years of experience in supporting university hospitals as well as RIS installations and Medico-HIS integrations with the RIS RadCentre was a key evaluation factor in the tender,” said Dr.-Ing. Andreas Ritter, Radiology IT Project Manager and Head of Device Development in the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at University Hospital RWTH Aachen, on the contract award. The University Hospital RWTH Aachen, a maximum care provider with 1,400 beds and over 50,000 inpatient and 200,000 outpatient cases annually, faced the challenge of replacing the legacy Medico WRAD system.
Mastering large and small project challenges with interoperable IT solutions
“University Hospital RWTH Aachen operates a complex HIS system for 36 specialist clinics, which has grown over decades and includes in-house developments that do not exist in this form at other facilities. This necessitates a highly complex analysis of possible interfaces and necessary configurations, requiring a high level of expertise. The result is a very individual interface configuration, whose implementation demands great flexibility from the system,” explains Ritter regarding the project requirements.
“In this size and scale, endurance and creative solutions in the HIS integration were undoubtedly among the biggest challenges of the entire project. During the course of the project, unforeseen issues kept arising, which the Mesalvo development team had to respond to dynamically,” adds Ritter.
Project requirements included retaining billing in Medico and integrating it into RadCentre. Despite initial challenges such as delivery delays due to COVID, limited IT staffing, and extensive project requirements, Mesalvo’s expert team demonstrated—through close collaboration with the University Hospital RWTH Aachen—that a project of this magnitude can be successfully implemented. RadCentre uses HL7 standards and supports IHE profiles, making it compatible with a wide range of other systems (HIS, HAS, PAS, PACS, laboratory systems, modalities, medical networks), thereby improving the exchange of reports, images, and other relevant data and optimizing communication between healthcare providers.
160 satisfied users work with MC³ Radiology | RadCentre
“For an institution of our size, where functions and responsibilities are distributed across many people, it is a major advantage to access all user functions, configurations, parameter settings, system logs, and interface debugging from a single client/interface,” praises Ritter. “A modern Active Directory connection, including single sign-on, attribute synchronization, and group nesting, is still not standard in medical software and significantly eases the workload of IT staff and end users,” adds Ritter.
Mesalvo’s radiology developments ensure bidirectional and multi-layered integration into HIS systems that support all processes from order entry to reporting and billing. “With our many years of deep HL7 expertise and the development of interoperable IT solutions, we go far beyond simply creating interfaces. We live interoperability in every detail—for a connected, efficient, and transparent healthcare system,” explains Jörg Steiner, lead project manager at Mesalvo.
Go-live day in Aachen – Time for radiological excellence
Before the go-live, end users received intensive training on the new software and workflows, and Mesalvo trained key users to ensure a smooth transition. “Day X” was carefully prepared, with a department walkthrough and final instructions held in the lecture hall.
With the integrated system, the previously paper-based workflow using examination forms was digitized—a major step towards paperless data exchange and improved interdisciplinary collaboration. Mesalvo has extensive expertise in integration teams and interface configuration. “One great advantage was that even after the go-live, the same Mesalvo contacts remained available who had helped build the system and knew it inside out. Smaller, short-term issues were usually resolved the same day,” Ritter said of go-live day.
The go-live for the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology and the Department of Nuclear Medicine is planned for later in 2024, with the goal of rolling out Mesalvo’s RIS across all radiology departments and optimizing the overall workflow at the university hospital.
