He was among the pioneers of hospital digitization. Way back in 1988, Professor Walter Hruby, Chair of the Institute for Radiological Diagnostics at the Donauspital Vienna, in Austria, decided that, when his hospital opened its doors, state-of-the-art technology would be implemented. Thus, in 1992, the Donauspital became Europe’s first, fully-digitised hospital. Today, recollecting that…
An RFID transponder (also known as a tag) consists of a chip and tiny antenna. Thanks to their small size these transponders can be integrated into almost any object, including clothing, boxes or even sheets of paper. Thus the logistics industry numbers amongst the prolific areas of application for wireless frequency identification using RFID (radio frequency identification) technology.
This is imaging with a ‘wow’-effect: The Swedish Centre for Medical Image Science & Visualisation (CMIV) in cooperation with the Norrkoping Visualisation Centre has developed a ‘Virtual Autopsy Table’ that allows a unique look inside the human body and takes interaction with volumetric medical data to a new level.
It’s been around for decades, re-emerged in the ’90s and, today, experts see a bright future for tomosynthesis technology. Thus its progress and future developments, plus specialist uses (e.g. breast) will be a particular feature at the Radiological Society of North America scientific assembly and annual meeting in Chicago this year.
Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is a promising new technology that acquires 3-D breast images. The individual images are presented as thin, high-resolution slices, which can be displayed individually or in a dynamic cine mode. Preliminary studies in a clinical setting have demonstrated that this new technology has the potential to improve not only the breast cancer detection but also to reduce…
Detection of circulating and disseminated tumour cells in blood is a promising method to diagnose cancer dissemination, or to follow up cancer patients during therapy. Today’s methods and involve time-consuming (more than a day) sample processing and cell isolation steps -- all labour intensive and expensive. A lab-on-chip that could integrate those processing steps would enable faster,…
Founded in 1981, IT solutions provider cobixx is a highly successful WLAN solutions innovator, an expertise now recognised by Cisco, a world leader in internet network solutions. Cisco’s Advanced Specialised Partner status is awarded solely to providers with a proven track record of competence in design, construction and maintenance of unified wireless LAN solutions. Denise Hennig reports
Ikerlan-IK4 and Mondragón Unibertsitatea are taking part in a project initiated by the Spanish National Research Council, CSIC, and which has developed a microchip capable of separating and extracting tumour cells in the blood stream by means of ultrasonic waves. The Foundation General Hospital of the University of Elche, together with researcher Alfredo Carrato, has also collaborated on this…
HEID or Health in Europe: Information and Data Interface is designed as a wikipedia for health and – at the moment in the test and pilot phase – enables everybody to find comparable European Health information and data free for use. Set up by the European Commission, DG Health and Consumers, the content is updated on voluntary basis by experts and health authorities, agencies and…
The Italian firm Internazionale Medico Scientifica (IMS) produces highly innovative mammography units under the brand name Giotto. More than 3,500 Giotto systems are now in use in 38 countries, mostly in Europe, America, China and the Far East. Reason enough for European Hospital to visit IMS in Pontecchio Marconi, Bologna.
At a meeting hosted by Siemens at AACC 2010, an expert panel shared perspectives on IT in the clinical lab. Representatives from Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit, MI), Alegent Health (Omaha, NE) and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Centre (Baltimore, MD) spoke about the increasing importance of IT in helping today’s lab to meet the challenges of cost containment, quality of care, increasing workload,…
t the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference (EMBC) in Buenos Aires (Argentina), imec and its project partners announce the launch of the European Seventh Framework Project MIRACLE. The MIRACLE project aims at developing an operational lab-on-chip for the isolation and detection of circulating and disseminated tumor cells (CTCs and DTCs) in blood. The new lab-on-chip is an essential step…
At ESC, Siemens presents a new image processing software that helps cardiologists and cardiac surgeons prepare and perform transcatheter aortic valve implantations (TAVI): Syngo Aortic ValveGuide automatically reconstructs a 3D representation of the aortic root from CT-like cross-sectional images acquired with the angiography system.
Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions, announces today that it has signed an agreement with TomTec, active in the sector of echocardiography image analysis, reporting and data management, for the integration of its Image-Arena solution into the company's IMPAX Cardiovascular Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). TomTec offers a wide…
The identification of cardiometabolic risk is one of the most frequently performed standard examinations, which many European health insurers even require for patients of a certain age. Up to now, physicians had to calculate the value manually on the basis of certain parameters – a time-consuming task. Seca, which specialises in medical scales, now offers 360° wireless, which not only measures…
Worthing Hospital, on the south coast of England, has installed a CARESTREAM DRX-Evolution dual detector room in its busy Accident & Emergency (A&E) department. The new modular system, with its cassette-sized wireless detector, floor rail and full auto positioning, replaces the existing analogue room.
The hosting service has been selected, software standards have been published, and on 11 December 2010 any French citizen will be able to open a file and begin creating a secure, personal electronic health record (EHR). If the agency charged with this ambitious programme meets the deadline, France will suddenly jump to the leading edge of e-health worldwide, rivalling advanced national programmes…
Initiated by Professor Peter Mildenberger and organised by European Hospital, the second PACS and more seminar, held during the DICOM meeting in Mainz, Germany, more than matched its name. Report: Meike Lerner
L’Assitance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, France, is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. In 2005, the group voted to implement a PACS in association with Carestream Health to connect its 47 hospitals and centralise their data. This meant creating a network to cover 36 CT scanners, 31 MRIs, seven PET-CTs and 37 SPECT systems, which were linked to 37 RIS and 30,000 computers - of course…
The key to implementing PACS installations networked to multiple hospitals is fully to establish in advance exactly what clinical scenario needs to be satisfied. In her lecture, Dr Nicola H Strickland BM BCh, at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK, spoke about the several possibilities, as well as the requirement and challenges which have to be considered in each scenario.
Carestream Health announced it is taking orders for its CARESTREAM DRX-Mobile Retrofit Kit that will allow healthcare providers to upgrade selected mobile x-ray systems to wireless DRX-1 technology. This wireless DR system can help increase on-site productivity and deliver immediate access to images for improved patient care, especially for critically ill patients in emergency rooms, operating…
First introduced at ECR 2010, Agfa HealthCare’s DX-M is a CR solution able to handle both needle-based detector plates (NIP), as well as standard phosphor plates (PIP). The solution’s ability to read NIP for Mammography requirements as well as NIP for general radiography means that the solution meets a market demand for high quality diagnostic images across needs, and offers potential dose…
Today Sectra announces the launch of a solution for efficient management of all medical imaging across departments throughout the entire enterprise, from radiology to the hospital photographer.
Agfa HealthCare announces today that it will be showcasing some of the latest arrivals to its DX-D Direct Radiography family with two works in progress: the DX-D 100 and the DX-D 10C.
Patients attending a radiology practice in Demmin, Germany, benefit from state-of-the-art ultrasound, mammography, X-ray, CT and MRI technology. Owned by Drs Uwe Kairies and Frank Rosenbaum, the practice has also introduced a RIS/PACS. Soon after the latter installation they switched from imaging plates, replacing their entire X-ray system with a new, direct digital radiology system with two…
