East Carolina University pioneers use of DICOM technology in dental medicine

Greenville, N.C. — East Carolina University School of Dental medicine (ECU SoDM), the largest institution of higher learning in eastern North Carolina, in conjunction with aycan, a recognized worldwide leader in medical imaging, announced today the installation of a fully integrated PACS system in ECU SoDM’s main clinic and teaching facility, Ross Hall, and 10 new remote dental clinics and student training facilities, Community Service-Learning Centers, in North Carolina.

Both the main and remote ECU SoDM clinics will provide dental services for the local community with state-of-the-art medical imaging technology based on the DICOM standard. Used for years in radiology, the DICOM standard enables the integration of scanners, servers, workstations, printers, and other network clients from multiple manufactures into a single picture archiving and communication system (PACS), allowing for improved communication and workflow efficiency.

“With the installation of a DICOM based PACS system, ECU SoDM is able to provide more efficient and cost-effective dental services to our patients,” said Todd Watkins, DDS, and assistant dean for dental education and informatics, ECU School of Dental Medicine. “We’re confident with aycan’s thorough workflow planning, integration, and training of our team, we’ll have a successful launch of our new Ross Hall facility in Greenville and Community Service Learning Centers throughout North Carolina.”

aycan integrated the ECU SoDM PACS system, which is comprised of aycan Store, a scalable, high performance DICOM archiving and distribution system; aycan workstation OsiriX PRO, an FDA and CE certified, highly functional 64-bit workstation for conventional, multi-slice and other image reading; AxiUm patient record system; and Apteryx, software which converts dental film-scanner output into DICOM format.

“aycan is proud to help ECU SoDM in their pioneering work to bring advanced radiological tools to the dental market,” said Frank Burkhardt, aycan Director, American Operations. “Having planned and integrated PACS workflows and systems for over a decade in other medical environments, we’re confident ECU SoDM will achieve improved efficiency and lower costs.”

ECU SoDM’s Ross Hall is scheduled to open in August and the first Community Service-Learning Center is scheduled to open in Ahoskie, N.C., this spring. The Centers are being developed to bring dental care into rural and underserved areas of North Carolina.

About East Carolina University (ECU) School of Dental Medicine
ECU School of Dental Medicine, located in Greenville, N.C., is dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of all North Carolinians by creating leaders with a passion to care for the underserved and by leading the nation in community-based, service learning oral health education. Click here to learn more.

About aycan Medical Systems
With a focus on vendor neutral integration and service, aycan is a worldwide provider of solutions for storing, viewing, and printing medical images and information that improve workflow efficiency and drive down costs. aycan works with other industry innovators such as Xerox, Apple, medQ, and EIZO whose quality products are part of their solutions. aycan supports customers worldwide with U.S. headquarters in Rochester, N.Y., and European headquarters in Wuerzburg, Germany. The company is privately held. Learn more at www.aycan.com.