What’s New Under the Sun?

RSNA 2010 debuts the innovative and improved in the radiology realm.

With roughly 700 technical exhibits spanning 17 radiological categories spread throughout the country’s largest convention center, attendees of RSNA 2010 may want to note their must-see items before hitting the show floor November 28 through December 3. Here are just a few of the highlights.

CARDIOLOGY

McKesson: Horizon Cardiology 12.2, the newest release of this cardiovascular information solution, features performance and usability improvements in its cardiovascular and ECG management products and integrated Fractional Flow Reserve module. Pediatric echocardiographic tools, better reporting, and streamlined FFR workflow are intended to meet customer demands.

CR/DR

Carestream Health: With a cesium iodide scintillator, the new DRX-1C detector delivers higher DQE (detective quantum efficiency) than its predecessor, the DRX-1, and is designed for use with Carestream’s existing systems. An extended exposure mode in new software compatible with both detectors facilitates cross-table positioning, mobile exams, and obese patient imaging.

CT

Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc: A new wide-volume protocol for the Aquilion ONE enables imaging of a large region of the chest in two to three volume x-ray rotations, permitting views of the entire lung, aorta, and heart quickly and accurately.

iCAD Inc: Cleared by the FDA in August, the virtual colonoscopy tool VeraLook integrates with specialized CTC reading environments and helps to identify colon polyps, improving accuracy, workflow, and consistency.

DATABASES/PORTALS

AccelaRAD: SeeMyRadiology.com brings social networking to medicine with a cloud computing platform designed to share data among hospitals, physicians, and patients. Features permit transmission of critical data in advance of patient transfer, electronic image review and messaging, ultrafast image communication, mobile applications, and patient image sharing.

Intelerad Medical Systems: Disparate patient databases can now share information through Intelerad’s Master Patient Index (MPI) module. Using database management technology and heuristic logic, the system indexes separate databases and presents potential matches within the physician’s worklist.

Merge Healthcare: A new platform, Merge iConnect, allows providers to easily share images and permits integration of imaging into broader health care information applications.

NovaRad: The vendor-neutral archive service NovaVault offers storage and disaster recovery services for DICOM-compliant PACS data. On-site storage includes Web-based administration, management, and communication; off-site has multiple security layers, redundant servers, environmental controls, and backup power.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Carestream Health: Users can customize the newest version of Carestream RIS so that data capture and workflows match the latest demands of regulators and institutional protocols. A new radiologist reporting module is intended to be a time-saver with structured reporting, standard answers, the ability to copy content from prior reports, and voice-driven commands.

InSite One Inc: Version 6.1, the newest edition of InDex, an IHE standards-based, vendor-neutral cloud repository, seeks to enhance productivity with a new configuration that can handle larger enterprise volumes and processing capacities, achieving this with HL7 messaging feeds and new DICOM routing tools. The patient-centric network has enrolled hundreds of health care institutions and now contains 6% of the nation’s medical imaging data (the largest collection in the United States, according to InSite One).

peerVue Inc: An IT platform that integrates data from health information systems (HIS, RIS, PACS, etc), the Qualitative Intelligence and Communications System (QICS) leverages real-time, qualitative intelligence to perform functions associated with tasks such as radiation dose tracking, emergency department discrepancies, and critical test results.

Viztek Medical: In addition to a full range of RIS features (from scheduling to worklists to automatic report distribution), the Opal WEB-RIS has a referring physician’s portal, a mammography component, preloaded CPT codes, insurance preauthorizations, and built-in exam follow-up and outcome tracking.

PACS

Carestream Health: A new interface helps users of the latest Carestream PACS focus on data rather than functions; automatic segmentation enhances abdominal and cardiac vessel viewing; and a patient mini-archive facilitates fast viewing and navigation.

GE Healthcare: Responding to customer demands and market trends, the latest release of GE’s PACS, Centricity PACS 3.2, integrates with the company’s archive and reporting systems and offers support of optional enhancements to the Web-based diagnostic viewer, Centricity PACS Web Diagnostic (Web DX 2.0); AW Server, 3D advanced clinical applications for areas such as cardiology and oncology; and server virtualization using VMware.

Intelerad Medical Systems: A smarter Inteleviewer offers advances that include greater flexibility with customizable layout protocols, advanced 3D visualization tools allowing combination display layouts, on-the-fly reconstructions (with current and prior study data), different reporting mechanisms (including embedded voice recognition and digital dictation), hybrid 3D processing capabilities, and 64-bit application speed.

Philips Healthcare: A new series of Workflow Layers for the iSite PACS targets ACR and Joint Commission compliance, workflow efficiency, user communication, workflow management, peer review, and ED-radiology discrepancy management.

Siemens Healthcare: syngo.via imaging software is intended for multimodality reading of clinical cases with automated case preparation and structured case navigation across multiple specialties, including cardiology, oncology, and neurology. The program is compatible with the PACS and RIS of today’s vendors as well as Siemens’ syngo.plaza with which it shares direct, no-click access and a unified user interface.

TeraRecon Inc: iNtuition, TeraRecon’s flagship advanced visualization and decision support system, is now available in Software-as-a-Service form as iNtuition Cloud. The infinitely scalable, client-server solution offers anywhere accessibility to all of the systems applications.

MAMMOGRAPHY

iCAD Inc: Four modules of a new MRI suite focus on mammography applications: the SpectraLook DCE MRI breast analysis uses colorized images created with physiological measures; PrecisionPoint automatically calculates location measurements for biopsies; the investigational version of SecondLook, titled Premier, integrates with leading digital mammography systems; and SecondLook Digital Multi Vendor Solution (MVS), another investigational device, uses a single server to process full-field digital mammography systems from major manufacturers, four connections per server.

Sectra: New features of the Sectra MicroDose Mammography solution span the range of functionality: preoperative planning has highly accurate lesion localization through laser-based needle examination; detector enhancements increase dose efficiency and image quality; Remote Monitoring improves proactive service; and MicroDose is a mobile application with secure encryption and easy use.

MRI—MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

iCAD Inc: The company’s new MR suite includes a software module that applies iCAD’s advanced image analysis to other organs. Using a pharmacokinetic model for tumor assessment, the system’s dynamic contrast imaging provides additional clinical insight in regions such as the liver, kidney, and brain.

Siemens Healthcare: Not yet available in the United States while pending 510(k) review by the FDA, the Magnetom Aera 1.5T and the Magnetom Skyra 3T MR systems feature two new technologies Siemens has dubbed its “power couple”: Time 4G, an advanced generation of ultra-high-density coil technology, and Dot (day-optimizing throughput), which optimizes the engines for applications, such as brain, cardiac, angiography, and oncology.

NUCLEAR MEDICINE

GE Healthcare: A new design of the SPECT gantry in the Discovery NM/CT 670 has greater positional flexibility; advanced nuclear medicine detectors improve general-purpose imaging; inherent registration of multiple CT and SPECT FOVs limits dose through region-specific scanning; and a telescopic table design increases the scanning range.

iCAD Inc: The VividLook DCE MRI prostate analysis solution of the company’s new MRI suite improves lesion differentiation with the use of colorized images created with all available time points (ATP) and tumor physiology signal changes.

ULTRASOUND

GE Healthcare: Advanced navigation tools, image uniformity (with all patient sizes), a scan assistant, and ergonomic features characterize the LOGIQ E9 ultrasound system. Clinicians can acquire images with deep penetration and high resolution.

Philips Healthcare: The iU11 xMATRIX shortens exam time and delivers high image quality. Harnessing the power of more than 9,000 active elements, its X6-1 PureWave transducer captures high-resolution images in 2D (in less than 1 second) and converts them into 3D with one button push. The PercuNav navigation system is like GPS for ultrasound.

Siemens Healthcare: The multispecialty ACUSON S2000 ultrasound system, release 2.0, offers powerful 2D and color Doppler imaging and comprehensive 3D/4D capabilities. The range of applications include second-generation Acoustic Radiation Forced Impulse imaging, an Automated Breast Volume Scanner (acquisition of full-field sonographic volumes of the breast in less than 10 minutes), and Cadence contrast imaging.

Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc: Viamo is flexible. The portable ultrasound system switches from tablet to laptop configuration, can interchange transducers from other Toshiba systems (including three new ones), and has advanced radiology capabilities to produce images with high resolution, uniformity, and clear color flow.

OTHER

AFC Industries Inc: Designed to maximize minimal space, the Floor Post Series of radiology workstations can configure four workstations on one 16″ x 16″ post. The adjustable tracks accommodate monitors, keyboards, CPUs, mouse trays, and optional accessories for cable management, storage, and lighting.

Merge Healthcare: The Merge Healthcare Kiosk reduces administrative labor by putting some business aspects in the hands of the health care consumer. Patients can check in, update information, scan documents (ie, insurance cards and IDs), and make payments through the stand-alone unit that also provides a marketing opportunity.

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Renee Diiulio is a contributing writer for Axis Imaging News.