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Advanced visualization software continues to make surgical planning more efficient and accurate as technology advances. Surgeons can map out procedures based on images from computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) exams, among other types of digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) modalities. The images allow physicians to see areas of interest from multiple angles, and isolate various structures, organs and vessels that are of interest in a matter of minutes. This advancement in technology has increased physician interaction and provided an opportunity for enhanced patient education that was not previously available.
If you are part of a health system that has spent months building and designing a new picture archive and communications system (PACS), it is undoubtedly an exciting time. Reaching the point of PACS activation and getting staff up and running is a true milestone. Once your company reaches this point, it may feel like the hard work is over and that it is time to take a deep breath, but in reality there is still much more to do and questions that have to be answered in order to fully support your organization during and post PACS go-live.
Agfa HealthCare announced that Hunt Regional Healthcare, Greenville, Texas, has upgraded its Agfa HealthCare picture archive and communication system (PACS) to Impax 6.5 and installed Agfa HealthCare's Cardiology PACS and Xero Viewer to deliver a consolidated view and centralized management of patient, image and information data. With the addition of Agfa HealthCare's Xero Viewer, physicians are able to access the nearly 100,000 imaging exams and reports done each year, on virtually any Hunt Regional facility device. Because the information is web-based, physicians can access the results in real time.
Agfa Healthcare introduced new functionality and workflow improvements for its completely revised cardiovascular ...
Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, one of the nation’s top pediatric medical centers, provides services in more than 40 specialties, including nephrology, oncology, cardiology, heart surgery, orthopaedics, neurology and neurosurgery. Located in Kansas City, Missouri, the state-of-the-art 335-bed facility and 600-plus pediatricians and researchers are actively involved in clinical care, pediatric research and education. In addition to its primary facility, Children’s Mercy serves the community and the greater Midwest with outpatient facilities and outreach clinics throughout the city, county and surrounding communities.
In 2012, Children’s Mercy purchased new Computed Radiography equipment from Agfa HealthCare. The Agfa HealthCare DX-G CR solution has allowed Children’s Mercy to reduce radiation dose by 57 percent compared to its previous CR system. “Premature infants are so much more susceptible to the risks of radiation. The DX-G with DirectriX CsBr plates allows us to give them the care they require while lowering the corresponding risk of radiation induced cancer,” says James C. Brown, M.D., director of radiology outreach; associate professor of radiology, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, “To reduce radiation dose by almost 60 percent and still have the same image quality is a significant step forward for Children’s Mercy and our neonatal patients.”
The U.S. Navy has awarded Agfa Healthcare a contract to upgrade more than 30 ships in the U.S. Navy fleet to the latest digital radiography (DR) solutions with Agfa Healthcare's DX-D 400, DX-D 100 and other systems. To be used along with Agfa Healthcare's Impax picture archive and communications system (PACS) and TalkStation voice recognition system for diagnostic reporting, this end-to end solution will provide the Navy with improved, efficient workflow from image acquisition to study reporting.
If you would have asked radiologists about the future of radiology information systems (RIS) five to 10 years ago, there is a good chance that they would have told you that RIS was a dying technology. Because RIS systems were merging with other technological platforms, many radiologists did not expect the systems to be around. But now many physicians are trying to meet the Stage 2 meaningful use (MU) criteria to take advantage of Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments and prepare themselves to be in compliance when the criteria become requirements. RIS and picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) are experiencing a technological rebirth that will usher the next generation of these products smoothly into 2013.
Just a few years ago, the debate in radiology departments about workhorse X-ray systems was whether to convert from analog film to computed radiography (CR) cassettes and digital readers, or to direct imaging digital radiography (DR) systems. Today, there is no doubt DR has won that debate and is being widely adopted, and CR is falling out of favor.
Agfa HealthCare has introduced its global remote incident prevention (GRIP) services to provide state-of-the-art electronic monitoring of all IMPAX picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) worldwide, as well as linked devices from other suppliers. GRIP’s ultimate goal is to prevent unsettling downtime surprises in the healthcare environment.
Agfa HealthCare previewed version 2 of its Impax Business Intelligence solution to the U.S. market at the 98th annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in November 2012.