Philips Medical Systems has installed an integrated chest x-ray screening and reporting system throughout the four terminals at London's Heathrow airport to screen people arriving in the UK for diseases such as TB.

Philips secured the Department of Health tender to provide three of its Thoravision chest x-ray systems, which have been installed with a DICOM archive, two soft copy reporting stations and patient-management software.

The digital thorax system, developed in 1994, allows imaging of a larger area, as well as direct conversion of the radiation dose pattern to digital signals. The result is good image quality and high-resolution viewing of even small low-contrast lesions.

The three systems are linked by Philips' web technology, so that images can be distributed across the airport with central reporting at terminal three. Support is provided from Philips' national call centre in west London.

In principle, the technology would allow the solution to be rolled out across other UK airports and ports.