Connectivity in the Service of Healthcare.

Mile Vignjevic, Head of IT at Brust-Zentrum AG, looks back on a truly remarkable career. Thanks to his technical and mathematical talent, he rose from being a trained nurse to becoming responsible for the entire IT infrastructure of the Breast Center and has served as the central point of contact between Brust-Zentrum and Cyberlink since 2009.

Brust-Zentrum has been working with Cyberlink on ICT matters since 2002. What initially began with smaller-scale projects grew significantly with the opening of a second location. Mile Vignjevic explains: “Since both locations were designed identically and the large volumes of data generated daily (X-ray images, patient records, etc.) require constant synchronization, a functioning and reliable connection between the two centers was essential. Operating a second branch with a separate IT department would simply not have been feasible.” For this reason, Cyberlink was already involved in an advisory role during the planning phase of the second location in 2010. The networking requirements were high. “A connection outage would have had fatal consequences,” says Vignjevic — various medical devices such as ultrasound, mammography, and X-ray systems would no longer have been able to synchronize their data with the central database. Latency also played a crucial role due to the continuous data synchronization. In light of these requirements, Cyberlink recommended a dedicated Ethernet point-to-point connection between the two locations with centralized internet access at the main site. Implementation began during the final construction phase of the new location in April 2012 and was completed in time for the opening of the new breast clinic in September 2012. “The line runs extremely stable. Since commissioning, we have not experienced a single outage,” says Vignjevic.

With the introduction of the new mammography imaging technology known as tomosynthesis (digital mammography with 3D breast imaging) in 2014, requirements increased once again. A tomosynthesis scan generates between 1 and 4.5 GB of data, compared to just 20 to 80 MB for conventional mammography. As a result, the bandwidth of the point-to-point connection had to be increased from the original 100/100 Mbit/s to 1/1 Gbit/s. According to Vignjevic, tomosynthesis will soon become the standard technology. Once that happens, another bandwidth upgrade to 10/10 Gbit/s will be unavoidable. In addition to site interconnection and centralization of all data at the main location, a further need emerged in 2014: secure access to all data from external locations and mobile devices. To meet this requirement, Cyberlink implemented multiple VPN clients. Today, physicians have immediate access to all necessary information — whether from home or even directly from the operating room. Furthermore, maintenance of medical equipment can be carried out efficiently and cost-effectively by manufacturers via direct VPN access, even from abroad.

“The collaboration with Cyberlink is highly collegial and extremely pragmatic. At times, it even feels as though Cyberlink were an internal department,” says Mile Vignjevic when asked how he perceives Cyberlink. “Through the close partnership and the joint development of tailored solutions for the Breast Center, I have been able to continuously expand my technical expertise,” he adds. As medical technology is constantly evolving, Cyberlink’s solution also requires continuous adaptation and expansion. “With Cyberlink as a partner, you are always on the safe side — even when facing new challenges,” concludes Mile Vignjevic.