Adding the Augmented Intelligence portfolio to its consolidated image management platform enables the Dutch healthcare provider to further improve healthcare delivery


  • Northwest Clinics has relied on Agfa HealthCare’s Enterprise Imaging platform for its enterprise-wide image management strategy for many years.
  • The new multi-year contract will extend the strategic collaboration between Northwest Clinics and Agfa HealthCare.
  • Adding the RUBEE™ for AI platform to the Enterprise Imaging solution supports the shared commitment of Agfa HealthCare and Northwest Clinics to helping physicians achieve more confident diagnoses, faster.
  • The extensive experience its radiologists have gained with AI algorithms in recent years makes Northwest Clinics an ideal hospital to support Agfa HealthCare in future developments.

Agfa HealthCare and Northwest Clinics agreed that they will extend their strategic cooperation, and further expand the consolidated Enterprise Imaging platform with the RUBEE™ for AI Augmented Intelligence portfolio. This enhanced collaboration will support Northwest Clinics in its ongoing commitment to further optimize care delivery, and allow the healthcare provider and Agfa HealthCare to work together to curb growing healthcare cost


Enterprise-wide image management strategy
Northwest Clinics is a top clinical healthcare organization in the northwest of the Netherlands, with sites in Alkmaar, Den Helder, Heerhugowaard, Limmen, Schagen and Texel. It has a staff of more than 4,000 employees, 325 medical specialists and 700 volunteers, and counts 842 beds.


 The healthcare provider has been using Agfa HealthCare’s market-leading Enterprise Imaging platform for many years, to manage all medical images, from radiology, nuclear medicine, cardiology and other departments. The consolidated platform delivers robust tools, workflows and functionalities. Its task-based workflow engine, aggregated imaging and non-imaging data from different systems, and powerful collaborative tools support efficient evidence-based decision making. Furthermore, clinicians from all specialties in the group have quick access to all images from within the EHR.


Northwest Clinics and Agfa HealthCare recently agreed that they will extend their collaboration for several years. With the addition of Agfa HealthCare’s Augmented Intelligence (AI) portfolio, the hospital group aims to take a significant step forward in patient care.


Augmented Intelligence (AI) for more focused patient care
In recent years, in collaboration with the IT department, the radiologists at Northwest Clinics have developed extensive experience in implementing and training AI algorithms in radiology. They are led by Dr. Paul R. Algra, a radiologist who is actively involved in health IT and is a thought-leader in the field of AI.


Adding RUBEE™ for AI to the Enterprise Imaging platform will enable Northwest Clinics to apply and test carefully selected AI algorithms for several health conditions, including breast and lung diseases. The healthcare provider has committed to being an ideal hospital for Agfa HealthCare developments, and to delivering continuous high-quality feedback on both existing and new algorithms being developed.


The advanced visualizations of the RUBEE AI packages are fully embedded in the Enterprise Imaging workflow. They help take the pressure off clinicians, and give them more time to focus on patients for whom their expertise has a greater added value.


“We are very satisfied with our many years of collaboration with Agfa HealthCare. This experience made it logic for us to take the decision to enter into a new agreement with Agfa HealthCare. Together, we can ensure that patient care is further optimized, which is quite simply our most important objective,” explains Floor Haak, member of the Board of Directors of Northwest Clinics.


“After strengthening our relationship with Northwest Clinics, it is time for the next step. We are very proud that a renowned hospital group such as Northwest Clinics has expressed its confidence in Agfa HealthCare through this new agreement. We are also pleased that with our intelligent, workflow-oriented RUBEE™ for AI platform we can contribute to our customer’s goal to further improve the delivery of patient care,” says John Emmerik, Managing Director of Agfa HealthCare in the Netherlands.

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Augmented Intelligence,image management platform,Northwest Clinics,Agfa HealthCare,RUBEE™ ,enterprise imaging Adding the Augmented Intelligence portfolio to its consolidated image management platform enables the Dutch healthcare provider to further improve healthcare delivery