The cornerstone project of the Health Infostructure Atlantic Project, signed in January 2000 by the four Atlantic Provinces, is known as Tele-i4 or interprovincial integration of images and information. The Tele-i4 project is the largest interprovincial implementation of PACS equipment in Canada. In Prince Edward Island, this new initiative is referred to as the Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS), and it is now accessible from every hospital in the province.

Using state of the art computer imaging technologies in all seven Prince Edward Island hospital Diagnostic Imaging departments, networks have been created to ensure that patient information and images can be electronically transferred from one location to another for referral, diagnosis and consultation.

"This means a patient can go to the emergency room in Souris, for example, have an x-ray taken, and that x-ray can be read by a radiologist in Charlottetown immediately," said Hon. Jamie Ballem, Minister of Health and Social Services. "The radiologist can provide a diagnosis and consultation to the attending physician in Souris, without the patient having to leave his or her home community or wait for the x-ray film itself to be sent by courier to the radiologist."

"Instead of moving patients and health care providers, PACS is moving information," said Minister Ballem.

Using the Island Health Information System (IHIS) network, a network that connects health locations, Prince Edward Island is the first province in Canada to implement this technology province wide. Plans are also underway to provide access to health professionals outside the IHIS network, such as physicians offices. The Atlantic Canada initiative to improve services throughout the region includes the transmission of images for consultation to major referral centres in Atlantic Canada such as the QE II in Halifax.

"What makes PACS really valuable is that it provides information to multiple users at the same time regardless of their location," said Josephine Ripley, Manager of the Prince County Hospital Radiology department. "The staff and physicians at the Prince County Hospital have been extremely supportive; they immediately realized the benefits of the PACS system and have adapted to the system very quickly."

Through the use of the PACS technology, the radiology images and information are now available on the hospital nursing floors and in emergency departments throughout PEI.

Funding for this initiative is being cost-shared by the Government of Prince Edward Island, the Prince County Hospital Foundation, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Foundation, and Health Canada, through the Canadian Health Infostructure Partnerships Program.

Implementation of this technology enables the health system to have one record for all radiology encounters within PEI, allowing radiologists and physicians to review both current and prior radiology exams online. One patient, one record.