At ECR 2011, Agfa HealthCare is showing its richest direct radiography (DR) portfolio ever. These DR solutions address a broad diversity of imaging needs, but always deliver productivity and workflow improvement benefits, combined with very high image quality.
2011 Siemens launches Mobilett Mira, its first mobile digital X-ray system with a wireless detector. The detector sends image data via W-LAN to an integrated imaging unit and particularly facilitates examinations of patients that are critically ill and have only limited mobility. Moreover, a new, rotating swivel arm increases ease of use for the clinical staff. Mobilett Mira will be introduced…
Vienna - For the 23rd time, the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) is opening its doors to welcome 19,000 participants from over 90 countries. The scientific exchange of knowledge and the presentation of the latest developments in the field of radiology will again be presented right in the heart of Europea. In an inaugural press conference on March 3rd, the hot topics of the congress were…
It’s digital mammography taken to the next level – or, so to speak, the next dimension as digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) that provides high resolution 3-D imaging. For about two years this exciting technology has promised to become the magic bullet in the early detection of breast cancer, particularly in the dense breast.
Thinking of the future of imaging, inevitably PET-MRI springs to mind. The fascination of this novel hybrid technology is great, seeing how it combines the best from three imaging areas: anatomy, function and metabolism. The further development of functional procedures in oncology is raising particularly high expectations. However, how extensive the use of this potentiated image information will…
A multi-centre French study is demonstrating that a four-minute ultrasound scan using a contrast agent can be performed after the first month of treatment and provide quantitative proof of whether a tumour is responding to the therapy.
These are exciting times for Carestream. The former film supplier is morphing into a genuine IT provider. Since its incorporation in 2007, the company has been investing many resources in the development of its portfolio with products that include systems for medical and dental imaging, IT solutions, molecular imaging and digital X-ray as well as digital products for non-destructive testing.
In 2005, when they founded the French ultrasound company SuperSonic Imagine, Jacques Souquet PhD and Claude Cohen-Bacrie had to convince radiologists that they not only offered a new product but also a completely new ultrasound technology that could measure entirely new parameters.
SECure TRAnsmission, the main aim of a spin-off from the Linköping Institute of Technology, was established in 1978. From this beginning, the Swedish firm Sectra has evolved into one of the world’s leading players in PACS and mammography solutions. Although secure communication systems remains a core business, the medical section has constantly grown since 1988, when Dr Torbjörn Kronander…
Held near Kobe, Japan, the Joint Meeting of the International Workshop and the Japanese Society of Pulmonary Functional Imaging drew in more than 250 international researchers and clinicians who work at the forefront of pulmonary functional imaging
Looking at the 5th dimension of a CT image is old hat. Back in the 1980s there were many installations with rapid kV switching, a dual energy procedure, which were mainly used for bone density measurements. Basically, the 5th dimension is the ability to determine the atomic number as well as density of materials, which facilitates tissue differentiation even when there is the same attenuation.
Often a life-saving intervention, mechanical ventilation also has some serious drawbacks: the need for sedation, the risk of ventilator associated pneumonia, intubation or tracheostomy related complications. In 1972, Donald Hill from Pacific Medical Centre, Los Angeles, reported the first successful long-term mechanical lung assist device with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).
As one of the most advanced forms of precision radiotherapy, proton therapy enables the irradiation of tumours located deep within the body, in the proximity of critical organs, such as the optic nerve or some brain areas. The Institut Curie has renovated its proton therapy centre in Orsay near Paris. Since 1991, when the original centre opened, it has treated over 5,000 patients (4,000 for eye…
For 170 years, the German firm seca has set worldwide standards for medical scales and measuring stations. Today, its products are used by medical teams in 110 countries, measuring a range of patients from tiny premature babies to adults weighing 300kg and basket ball players soaring to 7’ 4” high.
This March, Dräger Medical will bring to the bedside of respiratory patients an innovative new monitor that vividly shows, breath-by-breath, their response to treatment. After shifting a patient’s position, or adjusting the respirator setting, or delivering a drug to open airways, physicians and nurses will be able to watch in real-time the response inside the patient’s lungs.
People are confronted daily with finding their way in new buildings and building complexes. Generally these are intricate, have numerous sections distributed among different houses and/or floors. Whether in hospitals, rehabilitation clinics, airports, or other large building complexes, finding the way to a particular destination can be an extremely difficult or even an impossible undertaking.
The application of ergonomic principles can enhance product design and, more importantly, the usability of medical devices. Ideally the operation of the product is adaptable to the individual user’s preferences and to different workflows, for example when safe handling is ensured in routine as well as in emergency situations.
Molecular imaging (MI) is reported as an increasingly important diagnostic field for radiologists to focus on. However, molecular imaging should not be considered a new discipline that only adds to today’s clinical practice, or might even replace the traditional, more morphology-oriented diagnosis. Rather, the whole diagnostic concept should be re-considered.
Whole-body hybrid PET-MR scanners are emerging on the market and are expected to have a significant impact in diagnostic imaging particularly in oncology applications and also in other clinical domains, such as cardiology, inflammatory and infectious disease, as well as in neurological applications.
Innovation in imaging in the last decades was mainly driven by new imaging modalities, better image quality and improved workflow tools to enhance diagnostic quality and confidence. As a global vendor we face future turf battles with new market entries, especially from Asia. To win those competitive battles we are broadening our innovation focus to serve the changing needs of radiologists.
A leading radiologist is forecasting a ‘paradigm shift’ in breast imaging. Dr Peter Brader, from Department of Radiology, Division for Molecular and Gender Imaging, Medical University Vienna, envisages that diagnosis and treatment will move from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to one of personalised molecular medicine by 2025. He also foresees greater use of theranostics with combinations…
The closure of Pfizer’s Sandwich Lab is part of a long-term decline in drug development, a trend that has been affecting all major UK pharmaceutical multinationals. Big pharmaceutical companies have been downsizing, outsourcing and merging in an attempts to find an innovation strategy that will keep their pipelines filled with new, potentially profitable products.
Royal Philips Electronics and bioMérieux today announced that they have successfully achieved an important milestone in the development of fully-automated handheld rapid diagnostic test solutions for use in hospitals at the point-of-care – i.e. close to a patient’s bedside. This milestone comprises the successful integration of bioMérieux’s assay technology and Philips’ Magnotech rapid…
Breast cancer screening programmes are helping to reduce the mortality rates of women by finding cancer in its early stages when it is easier to treat. Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to introduce a screening program after succesful clinical trials in the 1980s. However x-ray radiation is also a risk factor for inducing breast cancer, meaning that a low radiation dose is…
Royal Philips Electronics is announcing CE marking for the industry’s first commercially available whole body PET/MR imaging system, the Ingenuity TF PET/MR*. This new system, being launched as the first new Philips modality in ten years, integrates the molecular imaging capabilities of PET with the superior soft tissue contrast of MR to image disease cells as they proliferate in soft tissue.…