Swedish IT and medical technology company Sectra has launched Sectra PACS release 12.1 with RapidConnect technology.

The firm said that the launch marked the start of the third phase in the rollout of Sectra's new PACS generation.

Sectra is focusing on customer productivity and wide area radiology.

Sectra PACS 12.1 is the third step in the rollout of Sectra's next-generation PACS with RapidConnect technology.

The focus of the next-generation Sectra PACS is on providing a performance solution for wide area radiology - enabling efficient workload sharing across multiple sites, even for very large image stacks over strained networks.

A core component of Sectra's PACS is RapidConnect technology, which leverages patent pending technology to enable the radiology workflow demanded today by the world's most advanced radiologists.

By facilitating multi-site workflow and rapid image and data delivery, Sectra will enable clinicians to efficiently leverage and share resources across geographic and subspecialty boundaries.

The list of clinical functionality delivered as part of Sectra's new PACS release is extensive, including efficient result distribution to referring physicians, several integrated solutions focusing on performance in large stack reading, such as integrated 3D and MPR, minimization of operational costs through the introduction of single point of administration and a full web-based deployment of the Sectra PACS.

Since the first step in the rollout of the next-generation Sectra PACS a number of customer sites have been upgraded to take advantage of the solution's high-performance remote reading based on RapidConnect technology. Among the first customers to implement 12.1 will be the province of Northern Ireland, performing more than one million examinations per year, which is seeking to significantly improve throughput and cut response times to referring physicians.

"Sectra PACS 12.1 is the largest investment that we have ever made in Sectra RIS/PACS and we are now very well-positioned with a future-proof PACS that can improve our customers' productivity," said Staffan Bergström, vice president Radiology IT at Sectra. "Our focus going forward is clearly on enabling wide area radiology and delivering complex solutions to demanding customers. Combined with our experience from 1000 customer projects, Sectra PACS 12.1 qualifies us to address this challenge today, and well into the future."