Data migration, interoperability and workflow integration for imaging IT.
Scope, project management & OEM documentation
Biomedical & IT teams deployed nationwide
Dedicated service desk for Nigerian facilities
PACS/RIS Migration & Integration is the specialized technical service of moving medical imaging data (from CT, MRI, X-ray) and radiology workflow information from an old or existing system to a new one. It's also about connecting different systems so they can share data seamlessly. You need this service when your hospital is upgrading its legacy Agfa Impax or Carestream PACS, merging with another facility that uses a different EMR, or aiming to create a central data repository for multiple government hospitals. The primary pain points this service solves are data loss during transition, extended clinical downtime, inability for radiologists to access prior patient scans, and the operational chaos of running two disconnected systems. This is a critical service for tertiary teaching hospitals, large private diagnostic chains like Echolab or MeCure, and state or federal ministries of health implementing system-wide health information exchanges. Without a professional migration, you risk data corruption, non-compliance, and severe disruption to patient care.
Ad-hoc migration support for a single modality to a mini-PACS costs between NGN 850,000 - NGN 2,500,000. A comprehensive, multi-department migration project with integration into an existing Hospital Information System (HIS) ranges from NGN 15,000,000 to NGN 75,000,000 or more. The final price is driven by the volume of data (in terabytes), the number and complexity of your imaging modalities (e.g., a GE Optima CT680, a Siemens Magnetom Aera MRI, and multiple Philips DigitalDiagnost C90 X-ray rooms), the number of legacy systems to decommission, and the intricacy of DICOM tag mapping and HL7 interface development with your EMR. On-site work, aggressive timelines requiring weekend work, and travel to facilities outside of Lagos, Abuja, or Port Harcourt will also increase the cost significantly. Post-migration support contracts typically start from NGN 3,500,000 annually.
Let Franance provide a detailed, fixed-cost proposal based on a thorough assessment of your current and target systems.
The absolute cheapest service, often a simple "data dump," can cost between NGN 500,000 - NGN 1,500,000 for a small clinic's dataset. This price typically excludes critical, non-negotiable steps like data validation to ensure no studies are lost, DICOM tag normalization to make sure studies are findable in the new system, integration testing with your RIS or EMR, and any form of post-migration support. The risks are catastrophic: lost patient records, corrupted images, and broken links between reports and studies. The hidden costs appear when your radiologists are spending hours manually searching for prior exams or when you have to pay another vendor an emergency fee to fix the broken integration with your Helium Health EMR.
Avoid the high cost of a cheap migration; insist on a comprehensive Scope of Work from the start.
An affordable, value-optimized service bundles the one-time migration project with a 12-month comprehensive support contract, with pricing typically ranging from NGN 12,000,000 to NGN 40,000,000 annually. This approach converts a large, unpredictable capital expense into a fixed, manageable operational expense. The bundle includes not just the migration, but also ongoing system monitoring, remote support for your clinical staff, scheduled performance tuning, and management of all software patches and updates. The primary benefit is having a single point of accountability for the entire imaging informatics ecosystem, ensuring the system runs optimally long after the initial project is completed.
Franance's bundled service ensures your system runs optimally long after the initial migration is complete.
An Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) for post-migration support, which typically covers only labour for troubleshooting and preventive checks, costs between NGN 3,000,000 and NGN 8,000,000 annually. A Comprehensive Maintenance Contract (CMC), which includes labour, all necessary software updates and patches, and support for the underlying server/storage hardware, ranges from NGN 7,500,000 to NGN 25,000,000+ annually. An AMC appears cheaper but exposes you to unpredictable and potentially high costs for version upgrades or hardware failures on your Dell PowerEdge servers. A CMC provides complete budget predictability and a higher guarantee of system uptime, which is essential for a mission-critical clinical system.
| Feature | Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) | Comprehensive Maintenance Contract (CMC) |
|---|---|---|
| Labour & Support | Included | Included |
| Software Updates/Patches | Excluded (Billed Separately) | Included |
| Server Hardware Support | Excluded | Included |
| Uptime Guarantee | Best Effort | Typically 99.5%+ (with penalties) |
| Budget Predictability | Low (risk of high extra costs) | High (fixed annual cost) |
We can help you model the total cost of ownership for both AMC and CMC options to make the best financial decision for your facility.
Request a no-obligation quote from Franance today for a detailed migration plan and transparent pricing.
You can find qualified providers based primarily in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, though they offer nationwide coverage. The best sources are direct referrals from the equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers, and Philips, or through specialized, vetted service platforms like Franance. Your selection process must prioritize providers with specific, demonstrable experience migrating the exact PACS/RIS software and hardware you use. A general IT company will not have the requisite DICOM and HL7 expertise. Before engaging, perform thorough due diligence. Verify their Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) registration, demand to see OEM certifications for their lead engineers, and ask for proof of professional indemnity and public liability insurance.
Use Franance's verified network to connect with trusted PACS/RIS specialists across Nigeria.
Franance provides a fully managed PACS/RIS migration and integration service, leveraging a nationwide network of OEM-certified informatics specialists. We act as your single point of contact, managing the entire project from initial assessment and planning through to execution, data validation, and long-term support under one accountable, transparent SLA. Our service is designed to de-risk the entire process for your hospital's management team.
The best provider is not the cheapest, but the one with a proven, verifiable track record of successful migrations for your specific vendor systems within the challenging Nigerian operational environment. For instance, if you are moving from an old Fuji Synapse system to a new Sectra Enterprise Imaging platform, the best provider will be a certified Sectra partner with multiple Fuji-to-Sectra migrations completed in Nigeria. General IT firms lack the deep, specialized knowledge of DICOM standards, HL7 messaging, and clinical radiology workflows required for a successful project. Evaluate providers on the maturity of their project management, the technical depth of their team, their data validation methodology, and their post-migration support structure.
A standard Scope of Work (SOW) is a detailed document outlining all phases, deliverables, responsibilities, and timelines for the project. It typically covers five key phases: Discovery & Assessment, Planning & Design, Execution & Data Migration, Validation & Go-Live, and Post-Go-Live Support. For a medium-sized hospital with 5-10 imaging modalities and around 5TB of data, a well-planned migration project takes approximately 8 to 16 weeks from the initial kickoff to the completion of the post-go-live support period. The SOW is the most critical document in the engagement, as it prevents scope creep and sets clear expectations for both your facility and the service provider.
The process follows a structured methodology that begins with a deep technical assessment of your source system, target system, data volume, and network infrastructure. We use industry-standard protocols like DICOM (for images) and HL7 (for text-based data like orders and reports) to ensure perfect data integrity. The core of the migration is an ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) process. Data is extracted from the old PACS database, transformed by normalizing inconsistent data fields (e.g., ensuring Patient ID formats are uniform), and then loaded into the new system. All communications and data structures are rigorously validated against international standards. The pass/fail threshold is absolute: 100% of patient studies must be migrated and be fully accessible.
A post-migration Service Level Agreement (SLA) is tiered based on issue severity. For a "Critical" issue (e.g., entire system is down, patient care is stopped), the SLA should guarantee a 1-hour remote response time and a 4- to 6-hour on-site engineer dispatch target for major cities like Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. For an "Urgent" issue (e.g., a single modality cannot send images), a 2- to 4-hour remote response is standard. "Routine" requests (e.g., creating a new user account) are typically handled by the next business day. A strong SLA will include financial penalties (service credits) for failure to meet these targets and will guarantee a minimum system uptime of 99.5%.
Franance provides a transparent, dashboard-driven SLA with real-time ticket tracking and performance metrics for your peace of mind.
Upon successful completion of the migration, you must receive a comprehensive handover documentation package. This is not optional. The package should include, at a minimum, a final Project Report detailing all activities, a signed Data Validation Certificate confirming data integrity, a full System Configuration Document for your new platform, and the signed User Acceptance Test (UAT) forms. For projects funded by international donors or NGOs, these documents are non-negotiable and form a critical part of your reporting obligations and audit trail.
Compliance in a PACS/RIS project touches on several Nigerian regulatory bodies. While NAFDAC is not directly involved with software, any new server, storage, or workstation hardware imported for the project must have a valid SONCAP certificate issued by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON). Critically, the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) requires that radiation-emitting modalities are linked to systems that can track and report patient radiation dose. Your migration provider must ensure that the dose reporting features of your new RIS/PACS are correctly configured and validated to pull data from your Siemens Somatom CT scanner or Philips C-arm. The entire data handling process must also be compliant with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR).
A post-migration preventive maintenance (PM) schedule for your PACS/RIS environment should be performed quarterly. The goal is to proactively identify and fix small issues before they become system-wide failures. Key tasks include reviewing server event logs for errors, verifying the successful completion of nightly data backups, testing disaster recovery failover mechanisms, and optimizing the system's database to maintain fast image retrieval speeds. This is managed via a digital log in a CMMS, providing a full audit trail of system health.
The emergency repair process starts the moment you report a critical issue via a dedicated support hotline or portal. This action must automatically generate a time-stamped ticket. Remote diagnostics should begin within one hour. The support team will use secure remote access to your servers to diagnose the fault. If the issue cannot be resolved remotely (e.g., a failed hard drive in the server), an engineer is dispatched to be on-site within 4-6 hours in major commercial hubs and within 24 hours for most other state capitals. The process must have a clear escalation path, so if the first-line engineer cannot resolve the issue, it is immediately passed to a senior specialist.
For the underlying server and storage hardware, the availability of common spare parts like hot-swappable hard drives, server power supplies, and RAM is generally good in Lagos and Abuja, with lead times of 1-3 business days. However, more specialized components like proprietary RAID controllers or network cards can take 7-21 days to import and clear through customs. A reliable service provider mitigates this by maintaining a local stock of Frequently Failed Parts (FSPs) specifically for the server models under their support contracts. Always insist on OEM-certified parts to ensure compatibility and to avoid voiding the warranty on your HP ProLiant or Dell PowerEdge servers.
Training is a non-negotiable part of the project handover. It must be role-based and should be conducted on-site over 2-4 days just before the system goes live. The training should be split into separate sessions for different user groups: Radiologists (focusing on the image viewer, reporting tools, and advanced features), Radiographers/Technologists (focusing on image quality control, exception handling, and sending studies from modalities), and System Administrators (focusing on user account management, system monitoring, and first-line troubleshooting). The goal is to ensure user adoption and a smooth transition.
A professional service includes populating a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) with all the hardware and software components of your new PACS/RIS environment. This system provides a single source of truth for your entire imaging informatics infrastructure. Each server, storage device, workstation, and software license is given a unique asset tag and entered into the system. The CMMS is then used to track all service activities, schedule preventive maintenance, and generate reports on key performance indicators (KPIs) like system uptime, Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), and Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF).
Given the power instability in Nigeria, a power audit is a mandatory pre-migration step. This is not a simple visual inspection. It involves connecting a professional power quality analyzer to the electrical supply in your proposed server room for 3-7 days. This device records voltage fluctuations, frequency instability, sags, and surges from both PHCN/NEPA and your generator supply. The data is then analyzed to produce a report that precisely specifies the KVA rating for the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and voltage stabilizer required to protect your sensitive and expensive PACS hardware.
Relocating an existing PACS/RIS system to a new building or facility is a high-risk project that requires meticulous planning. The process involves a planned system shutdown, professional de-racking and packaging of all servers and hardware, transport in a dedicated and secure vehicle, and complete re-installation, network configuration, and validation at the new site. A typical intra-city relocation (e.g., from Ikeja to Victoria Island) can be completed over a weekend (2-3 days), while an inter-state move (e.g., Lagos to Abuja) will take 5-7 days, including transit and re-commissioning.
The deinstallation and disposal process involves more than just unplugging old equipment. It requires adherence to environmental and data security regulations. All hard drives from the old PACS servers containing patient data must be securely and permanently sanitized. This is done either through cryptographic erasure, multi-pass data overwrite software following standards like DoD 5220.22-M, or physical destruction (shredding). You must receive a formal Certificate of Data Destruction for your records to prove compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). The physical hardware is considered e-waste and must be disposed of through a government-licensed environmental recycling company.
Quality control (QC) is an ongoing process, typically performed quarterly as part of a comprehensive support contract. It involves running a series of standardized tests to verify that the system's performance has not degraded over time. These tests measure key user-facing functions, such as the time it takes to retrieve a large CT study from the archive, the speed of the reporting application's launch, and the processing time for HL7 messages from the RIS. The results are trended over time to proactively identify and address performance bottlenecks before they are noticed by your clinical staff.
Electrical safety testing should be performed annually on all hardware components of the PACS/RIS system that are located in a patient care environment. This includes radiologist workstations, clinical review monitors in wards, and technologist consoles. A qualified biomedical engineer uses a calibrated electrical safety analyzer to test for earth continuity, insulation resistance, and leakage currents, ensuring the equipment poses no electrical hazard to staff or patients. This is a fundamental requirement for hospital accreditation and health and safety compliance.
The key performance indicators (KPIs) you must track to measure the success of your PACS/RIS support are System Uptime Percentage, Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), and SLA Attainment. These metrics should be delivered to you in a formal monthly performance report and, ideally, be accessible 24/7 via a real-time online dashboard. System Uptime (target should be >99.5%) measures reliability. MTTR measures the provider's efficiency in fixing problems. SLA Attainment shows if they are meeting the response times promised in your contract. These KPIs allow you to have objective, data-driven conversations about service quality.
For large, one-time migration projects, payment terms are typically milestone-based. A common structure is 40% on contract signing to mobilize resources, 40% upon successful "go-live" of the new system, and the final 20% upon final project acceptance and handover of all documentation, usually 30 days after go-live. For ongoing annual support contracts (AMCs/CMCs), payment is usually made quarterly or annually in advance. Reputable providers like Franance can also offer integrated financing solutions, converting the entire project cost into a predictable monthly or quarterly operational expense over a 24- or 36-month period, which can ease cash-flow pressures.
While the highest concentration of certified informatics engineers is in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, professional service is available nationwide. Reputable providers achieve this coverage through a combination of regional engineering hubs, partnerships with local technical staff, and a strong remote support infrastructure. This hybrid model allows them to provide rapid on-site response in major cities while cost-effectively serving facilities in every geopolitical zone.
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30+ Years
Experience delivering healthcare projects in Nigeria
OEM Certified
Biomedical & IT teams for installation, calibration & support
Nationwide
Coverage across Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano & beyond
Honest answers about scope, pricing, delivery and support so you can plan with confidence.
A PACS/RIS migration service in Nigeria typically ranges from ₦5 million to ₦25 million, depending on the number of modalities and data volume. The cost covers data extraction, cleansing, validation, and integration with equipment like a GE Revolution CT. A detailed site assessment is required for a precise quote, which includes factors like integrating with your existing Hospital Information System (HIS).
An Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) offers a fixed yearly fee for scheduled preventive maintenance and standard support. A Comprehensive Maintenance Contract (CMC) is more expensive but includes all spare parts and unscheduled emergency calls. For a high-uptime environment with a Siemens Artis Q cath lab, a CMC is often preferred to minimize financial surprises and ensure maximum availability.
Yes, bundled packages combining PACS/RIS migration with a multi-year maintenance contract for your imaging equipment are available. This approach ensures seamless integration and single-point accountability. For instance, a package could cover the migration service plus a 3-year AMC for your Philips Ingenia MRI, often resulting in a 10-15% cost savings compared to separate contracts.
Standard payment terms are a 50% advance payment upon signing the contract, 40% upon successful system go-live, and a final 10% after a 30-day user acceptance testing (UAT) period. This structure ensures commitment from both parties. For larger projects, milestone-based payments tied to specific deliverables like hardware installation or data migration completion are common.
A full PACS/RIS migration for a medium-sized hospital with 10-15 modalities typically takes 8 to 12 weeks. This includes 2 weeks for planning, 4-6 weeks for data migration and system configuration, 1 week for integration testing with modalities like a GE Optima CT540, and 1-2 weeks for user training and go-live support. The timeline is finalized after the initial site assessment.
Integration with your existing EMR/HIS is achieved using the HL7 (Health Level Seven) standard protocol. The service provider configures an interface engine that allows the RIS to receive patient orders from the EMR and the PACS to send imaging reports back. This ensures seamless data flow, eliminating manual entry and reducing errors between your patient records and imaging studies from a Siemens Magnetom Avanto MRI.
The standard Service Level Agreement (SLA) in Lagos, Abuja, or Port Harcourt guarantees a 2-4 hour response time for critical system failures and a 24-hour resolution time. For non-critical issues, expect a next-business-day response. This ensures minimal disruption to clinical workflows, especially for high-throughput departments using equipment like the Philips Affiniti 70 ultrasound system.
Data downtime is minimized by performing the final data cutover during off-peak hours, typically over a weekend. We implement a 'read-only' mode on the old system while migrating live data to the new PACS. A temporary, standalone DICOM viewer can be set up for emergency cases, ensuring radiologists can still access critical images from a GE Optima CT680 while the main migration is in progress.
Training is conducted in phases, starting with 'super-user' training for department heads, followed by role-specific sessions for radiologists, technologists, and administrative staff. We use a 'train-the-trainer' model and provide on-site, go-live support for the first 1-2 weeks. Hands-on sessions are tailored to your specific workflows, such as reporting protocols for studies from a Canon Aquilion Prime CT scanner.
Choose a partner with verifiable experience integrating with your specific imaging modalities, like a Siemens Artis zee biplane system. Request at least three recent, local hospital references and review their project case studies. Verify they have certified engineers for both the PACS software and network infrastructure. A provider with a physical office in your region ensures faster on-site support.
Their engineers must have certifications like CompTIA A+/Network+ for hardware and networking, and specific PACS administrator certifications (e.g., CIIP - Certified Imaging Informatics Professional). Crucially, they need documented, hands-on experience with DICOM and HL7 protocols, and familiarity with integrating major OEM equipment like Philips IntelliVue patient monitors or GE LOGIQ E10 ultrasound machines.
Yes, top-tier providers offer nationwide support through a network of strategically located field engineers and robust remote access capabilities. For facilities in remote areas, a hybrid model is used: immediate remote troubleshooting for software issues and a 48-72 hour SLA for on-site hardware support. This ensures even hospitals outside major cities like Lagos or Abuja receive timely service.
You can finance a major PACS/RIS upgrade through specialized healthcare financing solutions like Franance. This allows you to spread the capital cost over 24-48 months, converting a large one-time expense into a predictable operational payment. This makes acquiring a modern system, fully integrated with your Siemens Healthineers CT scanner, financially manageable without depleting your capital budget.
A standard SOW includes project scope, specific deliverables, a detailed timeline with milestones, and roles and responsibilities for both parties. It will list all modalities to be integrated (e.g., Fuji FDR Go PLUS), define the data migration scope (e.g., last 5 years of studies), and specify acceptance criteria for system performance and user training completion.
We ensure correct integration by first performing a DICOM conformance check on your GE Optima CT680. We then configure the modality's network settings (AE Title, IP address, Port) to communicate with the PACS server. Finally, we conduct end-to-end testing by sending test studies, verifying all images and metadata are received, stored, and displayed correctly on the radiologist's workstation.
Post-migration testing includes unit testing (verifying individual modality connections like a Hologic 3D Mammography system), integration testing (ensuring seamless data flow with the RIS/HIS), and User Acceptance Testing (UAT). During UAT, your radiologists and technologists follow real-world workflows to confirm the system meets all clinical and operational requirements before final sign-off.
Upon completion, you receive a comprehensive documentation package. This includes network diagrams, system configuration details, administrator and user manuals, a full data migration report, and training attendance records. We also provide a support handover document with escalation contacts and procedures, ensuring your team can manage and troubleshoot the system effectively.
We handle compatibility issues with older modalities by using a DICOM gateway or broker. This device sits between your Siemens SOMATOM Emotion CT and the new PACS, translating or correcting non-standard DICOM tags to ensure the data is compliant. This avoids costly modality upgrades while still allowing seamless integration and data archiving in the central PACS.
Outsourcing to a specialized provider is generally better for PACS/RIS migration. An in-house IT team often lacks the specific expertise in DICOM protocols, HL7 integration, and clinical workflows required for a smooth transition. A specialist firm brings project management experience from dozens of similar projects, minimizing risks of data loss, extended downtime, and integration failures with equipment like a Philips Veradius C-arm.
OEM services from GE, Siemens, or Philips offer deep knowledge of their own products but can be more expensive and less flexible with integrating competitor equipment. A reputable third-party integrator provides a vendor-neutral solution, often at a lower cost, and is more adept at connecting diverse modalities from multiple manufacturers. However, you must verify their engineers' certifications and experience.
A regional provider in Lagos may offer faster on-site response times within the city but could struggle to support facilities in other states. A nationwide provider has a wider network of engineers, ensuring consistent support levels across the country. For a hospital group with locations in both Lagos and Kano, a nationwide provider offers a single point of contact and standardized service delivery.
A simple data migration only involves moving historical imaging data from an old PACS to a new one. A full system integration is far more complex; it includes data migration plus connecting all imaging modalities (e.g., a GE Vivid E95 ultrasound), configuring the RIS to communicate with the hospital's EMR, setting up radiologist worklists, and training all users on the new workflow.
We ensure NDPR compliance by implementing robust access controls, data encryption both in transit and at rest, and detailed audit trails logging all access to patient data. The PACS is configured with role-based permissions, so only authorized personnel can view specific patient information. Data is stored on secure, redundant servers located within Nigeria to meet data sovereignty requirements.
While the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) primarily governs radiation-emitting equipment, their guidelines indirectly impact PACS. They require accurate dose reporting and record-keeping for modalities like CT scanners. Your PACS must be configured to correctly receive, store, and display the DICOM Radiation Dose Structured Report (RDSR) sent from your Siemens CT scanner to comply with patient safety and audit requirements.
System validation involves a formal process of documenting that the PACS/RIS meets its intended use. We provide a validation package that includes the Installation Qualification (IQ), Operational Qualification (OQ), and Performance Qualification (PQ) documents. This proves to bodies like the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) or the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) that the system is installed correctly and performs reliably.
For a critical server failure, our protocol is immediate remote login within 15 minutes to diagnose the issue. If remote resolution is not possible, an engineer is dispatched for on-site support within 2-4 hours in major cities like Lagos or Abuja. We simultaneously initiate the disaster recovery plan, which may involve activating a backup server to restore essential imaging services within a predefined recovery time objective (RTO).
Our support system has a three-tier escalation path. If the primary (Tier 1) technician cannot resolve the issue or is unavailable, the ticket is automatically escalated to a Tier 2 senior engineer. If the issue persists, it is escalated to the Tier 3 technical lead or service manager. This ensures your critical issue with, for example, a Philips Ingenia Ambition X MRI integration, always receives expert attention.
A typical preventive maintenance (PM) schedule is performed quarterly. It includes checking server logs for errors, applying critical security patches and software updates, verifying the status of RAID arrays, and testing the uninterruptible power supply (UPS). We also confirm that automated backups are running successfully and perform a test data restore to ensure data integrity.
We maintain a local inventory of critical spare parts like server power supplies, hard drives, and network cards for common Dell or HP server models used for PACS. This allows for rapid replacement, minimizing downtime. For less common parts, we have established supply chains with major distributors to ensure delivery within 48-72 hours, as defined in your service level agreement.
We troubleshoot this by first performing a DICOM ping (C-ECHO) from the Philips IntelliVue MP70 to the PACS server to verify basic network connectivity. If successful, we check the PACS logs for incoming connection attempts and any error messages. We then verify the AE Title, IP, and port configurations on both the modality and the PACS. Often, the issue is a simple network configuration mismatch or a firewall blocking the DICOM port.