Other strengths include the ability to deploy the system across the Web, store data from vendors, PACS and hospitals that are not using Agfa, and Agfa's failover model, Wilson pointed out.

"The software is designed to be largely deployed over the Internet, so when you get the large central core installed, you can then roll it out to the different clinicians. Then it's just a matter of getting timing on the training and getting the administrator prepared to put in users names and passwords so it can get secure access to the system," said Wilson.

What's significant about the failover model, according to Langis, is that each diagnosis console and PACS servers have a UPS. "We are always able to work even if there is a power shortage," he said.

Agfa's system was designed for a U.K.-based project that performs 10 million exams each year, Wilson pointed out. "If you have five minutes of downtime, you are 20,000 studies behind. So you can't afford to have five minutes downtime," he said.

The architecture works well in Canada and hospitals can rely on it to always be running, Wilson said. The data centre technology is robust and reliable and has no single point of failure, he pointed out. "It's automatically routed to the other site so they never know they are down," he said.