HealthManagement, Volume 8 - Issue 5, 2008
Carestream
Infrastructure For R-Bay Project
The R-Bay project aims to address the uneven spread of radiologists across member states with the creation of an internal eMarketplace for eHealth services in Europe. Carestream are facilitating the remote reporting of images in Denmark, Finland and the Czech Republic by clinical providers in Estonia, Lithuania and the Netherlands and are working closely with Finnish IT provider Mawell who provide the central eConsultation workflow portal.
Barco Sells Advanced Visualisation Business
Barco has entered into an agreement to sell its Advanced Visualisation activities to Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, via its newly formed, wholly-owned subsidiary, Toshiba Medical Visualization Systems Europe. ‘Advanced Visualisation’ was part of Barco’s Medical Imaging Division through the acquisition of the Voxar company. The divestment operation, which is subject to approvals from relevant antitrust authorities, is expected to close within a few months.
eHealth Global Releases Image Exchange Service
eHealth Global announced the release of the Image Exchange Service for RHIOs and CommunityHealth Networks at the annual meeting of the American Health Information Management Association in Seattle. The service allows healthcare services to share medical images accessed through the company’s eHealthViewer. The service facilitates 3D viewing and multi-planar (MPR) reformatting from any Windows PC or Windows Mobile smart phone.
Europe’s First Multi-Slice PET/CT Scanning Device
GE Healthcare delivered their multi-slice PET/CT Scanning Device to the Turku PET Centre in Finland. The scanning device combines the latest PET and computed tomography technologies to enable non-invasive imaging of heart functions. The specialised software fuses PET and CT images into a 3D view of moving organs
or structures.
MRI Oncology Package Released
GE Healthcare launched the new Signa Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Oncology package at ASTRO. This package is said to enhance MRI for radiation therapy planning with a detachable flat-surface patient table with indexed edges, flexible surface coils for high resolution imaging and treatment positioning aids. Its objective is to facilitate the co-registering of MRI and CT images by acquiring MRI images in the same positioning as CT images.
CAD Could Improve Cancer Detection
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that Hologic’s Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) system could improve the rate of cancer detection in sreening mammography.
Researchers compared the cancer detection rate for single reading of screening mammograms with CAD input versus double reading without CAD support. It was found that CAD could be an alternative to double reading and could improve detection rates from screening mammograms read by a single reader. This is especially relevant in the US where single readings are most common.
Amerinet Awards FUJIFILM Single-Source FFDM Contract
FUJIUFILM Medical Systems and Amerinet have agreed a Full Field Digital Mammography (FFDM) contract for their CR-based digital mammography systems. The FFDM systems have been added to the existing digital x-ray contract that will remain in place until December 2009.
Siemens MVision™ and Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy
Siemens claim that MVision™’s megavoltage cone beam imaging solution helps physicians to determine the location of the target tissue and to automatically correct the treatment field. MVision™ features a 3D conebeam, precise positioning, extensive coverage of the target volume and requires no additional hardware.
Clearance for R2 Quantra™ Volumetric Breast Density Assessment
Hologic have announced FDA clearance for the R2 Quantra™ volumetric breast density assessment tool. It is a software application created to provide radiologists with an automated method for assessing breast density. R2 Quantra™ creates an internal 3D model of the breast from which it derives esti mates of the fibroglandular tissue volume and total breast volume.
Research published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests that breast density is as significant a predictor of breast cancer risk as age.
Trauma Centre Installs S-Fast Point-Of-Care Ultrasound Tools
Los Angeles County-USC Medical Centre, a level one trauma centre, has installed 12 of SonoSite’s S-Fast ultrasound tools in an attempt to integrate ultrasound into patient resuscitation and trauma care. The tools are mounted on resuscitation towers alongside monitors, defibrillators and pulse oximeters.
Carestream Health Unveil New Software
New software for Carestream’s DR 7500 digital radiography system has been unveiled. It contains KODAK DIRECTVIEWEVP Plus, which is claims to provide more consistent image presentation and orthogonal control of image processing. The software also boasts a new tool allowing images to be calibrated to radiologist preference, optimising image presentation and reducing the need for reprocessing.
Philips and Celsion Research Agreement
An agreement to develop a new cancer treatment that combines ultrasound and drug delivery technology has been made between Philips and Celsion. The potential for using Celsion’s Thermodox® in combination with Philips’ MRI guided high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) to treat solid and diffuse tumours will be explored. If succes sful they claim it would be possible to treat tumours that would be otherwise inaccessible and also reduce side effects.
Ulrich Medical® Announces CO2 Insufflator for Virtual Coloscopy
Ulrich claim that in comparison to manual room air insufflation, the new product significantly improves diagnostic results. “Our novelty offers an automatic insufflation of carbon dioxide with an easy setting and monitoring of gas volume and pressure. In addition patient's comfort is increased due to the guarantee of a faster resorption.”
First Artis Zee System Installed in Scotland
Hairmyres Hospital in Lanarkshire has installed the first cardiac Artis Zee interventional imaging system in Scotland. The system from Siemens Healthcare can be used for diagnostic procedures, coronary intervention and pacemaker insertion. The benefits are said to be a more efficient workflow, better patient throughput and comprehensive and quality images without increasing the dose.
