
Packing full ultrasound power in a probe with USB plug in
Portable ultrasound just got more compact with the first transducer embedded with a full scanning system that plugs into the USB port of tablet or laptop computers.

Portable ultrasound just got more compact with the first transducer embedded with a full scanning system that plugs into the USB port of tablet or laptop computers.

On the occasion of Medica 2011, Siemens Healthcare has launched a donation campaign for “Doctors of the World” For every fifty Siemens ultrasound systems sold between October 1 and December 31, 2011, the company will donate one Acuson X150 to the humanitarian organization.

With most radiology departments using digital equipment, smoothing image and data mnagement, CEOs and medical heads of departments aim to achieve those benefits – and particularly paperless systems – across their hospitals. HCI, a consulting and implementation company based in Brilon, Germany, specialises in integrating systems in, for example, operating theatres. Formerly employed in key…

If you look at the current – not to mention the future – challenges in the hospital environment the term information technology seems misleading. Surely there is no dearth of information. The foremost task of technology however is to turn information into knowledge. EH@Medica talked to Bernhard Calmer, Head of IT Sales, Siemens Healthcare, Germany, about the new knowledge technology and its…

SonoAce GmbH, the subsidiary of Samsung Medison based in Germany, has announced the development of two ‘outstanding new imaging technologies’

Manufactured by Royal Philips Electronics and currently being introduced in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand, ClearVue introduces proprietary Active Array technology, which moves key technology from the system to the transducer, resulting in enhanced image quality in 2-D and colour, lighter weight cabling and increased transducer reliability, Philips reports.

The Honda HS-2100 is one of the latest developments from the Medical division of Honda Electronics, in Aichi, Japan. This portable, sleek, compact system has fine image quality, the firm reports: The front-end is fully digital which, combined with the unique technology, guarantees optimal image quality and focusing on pixel level.

The goals are ambitious: Although in the market merely four years, the start-up firm Alpinion Medical Systems states its intention to become one of the prime providers in the ultrasound segment with superior imaging and unique transducer technologies. In an interview with Daniela Zimmermann of European Hospital, Thomas Roth, Alpinion’s Managing Director, explains his corporate strategy and…

Siemens Healthcare reports that the firm’s new Acuson S2000 system includes the new multifunctional transducer 6C1 HD (high density) specifically designed for abdominal examinations, displaying even the smallest lesions at greater depths. At Medica, the company is also demonstrating its Virtual Touch Tissue Analytics technology, a proprietary implementation of Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse…

Toshiba’s new high-end ultrasound series, the Aplio 300, 400 and 500, introduced during the World Congress of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology in Vienna, this August, was heralded by the firm as ‘A giant leap forward’, due to its inclusion of features such as Fly Thru and Smart Fusion.

Siemens Healthcare is the first medical engineering company to offer a Low Dose Information Center on the Web. This English-language platform for continuing education and information around the topic of dose reduction is aimed at doctors and clinical personnel. The range of topics covered includes basic information on X-ray radiation, technical innovations relating to dose reduction and sample…
Experts would like to see new measures introduced to increase magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) safety. Ahead of a major *safety conference in London on November 9, leading practitioners and researchers say steps could be taken which would further improve the MRI safety environment and help patient management.

Ziehm Imaging’s C-arm is a general X-ray unit. It’s what hospitals really need, says Timo Ihamäki, the firm’s business manager, because ‘It’s a mobile unit that can be moved to the OR, out of the OR, to the trauma room, A & E, or wherever needed -- it’s always in the hallway. Whoever needs it, takes it.’

In an interview with Daniela Zimmermann, Professor Jerzy Walecki explained the implications of that role and the state of radiology in Poland today.

Following the acquisition of an Elekta Axesse system, which provides 3-D image guidance technology for conventional and stereotactic radiation therapy techniques, Helsinki University Central Hospital (HUCH) in Finland reports that, after eight months its image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) of lung, brain, pelvis, head and neck tumours has increased by up to 30 patients daily.

As a referral neuroradiologist for paediatric tumour studies, Professor Monika Warmuth-Metz, Consultant at the Neuroradiology Department at University Hospital Würzburg, daily evaluates MRI images of different origin and colour. Her resume states: ‘All too often the standard protocols set out in the guidelines are not adhered to, which makes evaluation and follow-up significantly more…

St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, a 537-bed teaching hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is part of Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, which leverages the resources of seven hospitals, five out-patient health centres and further care provider organisations across five counties in southeast Michigan. In August 2008, the large hospital, with a high volume of patients, became one of the first sites to operate…

A solution for a large but previously unsolved problem has been solved by LMT Lammers Medical Technology GmbH, which specialises in the interface of neonatology and radiology.

Embolisation – the blocking of vessels - is a key procedure in Interventional Radiology. It plays a steadily growing role in the treatment of various tumour lesions, with hepatic cellular carcinoma and uterine fibroids the main focus.

Although like a conventional MR scanner the unassuming exterior is misleading. The casing houses a powerful interior. This is the new Siemens Biograph mMR, a hybrid that contains a specially developed PET component fully protected against magnetic field interference.

The Nomex multimeter, a miniaturised non-invasive measuring system for absolute dosimetry and quality control in X-ray diagnostic radiology, will be demonstrated in several upcoming European medical trade shows*, including Medica in Dusseldorf.

Expert warns that breast screening across the country needs to undergo a dramatic transformation over the next 15 years, Mark Nicholls reports.

‘As we become more successful in the early detection and treatment of breast cancer, we tend to trivialise it. Yet one in 9 women still get breast cancer. Half of them become depressed, their partners don’t know how to react and their families are in disarray. We need to stop trivialising breast cancer. It kills women.’ So says Dr Fabienne Liebens, Head of the Saint-Pierre Hospital’s…

For the paediatric radiologist an ultrasound system is as essential as a wrench for the mechanic, for three reasons, says Professor Michel Claudon, Head of the Department of Radiology at the Children's Hospital of Brabois, University of Nancy, France: ‘High image quality due to the low weight of children, which allows medium frequency, the absence of radiation and the possibility of performing…

Comprehensive additional training is necessary in Germany, to specialise in paediatric radiology, and only seven among the country’s 35 university hospitals provide paediatric radiology professorships. Thus, there are only about 80 specialists in this field and very few work in private practice