Sentara Healthcare operates more than 100 sites of care serving the residents of Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Founded in 1888, the organization is growing and is recognized as one of the top integrated health care systems in the nation. Sentara Healthcare currently consists of:

  • 10 hospitals
  • Advanced imaging centers
  • Three medical groups
  • Nursing and assisted-living centers
  • 3,680 provider medical staff
  • Optima Health – Sentara-owned health plan serving 450,000 members

 

Sentara’s quest for superior patient care, continuous innovation and expansion required the organization to consider a vendor neutral archive (VNA) solution to increase interoperability and connectivity for their current and future enterprise medical imaging initiatives. To launch the VNA effort, Sentara engaged Ascendian Healthcare Consulting as a partner to establish the foundations required for a successful business strategy and the supporting analysis, education, phased design and deployment. An enterprise VNA will enhance Sentara’s capabilities across clinical image data flow, work flow and integration with their EHR solution. The effort required:

  • Identifying the technical and functional requirements of an Enterprise Imaging Platform, including an enterprise viewer
  • Developing and delivering education to technical, clinical and executive leadership
  • Conducting a robust vendor selection process
  • Designing a design, build, migration and implementation strategy that includes image-enabling their EHR (EPIC)

Fujifilm Medical Systems USA Inc., announced a new computed radiography (CR) reader, the FCR Prima-T2. The new model offers enhanced processing speeds of up to 73 IPs/hour while leaving the easy to use capabilities and high functionality intact. The product is one of the most compact and lightweight on the market and can be installed just about anywhere, providing an ideal solution for low- to mid-volume imaging needs.

In vivo ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) imaging can detect early changes to the lung caused by cigarette smoke exposure and provides a noninvasive method for studying lung dysfunction in preclinical models, according to research published in the April issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. These measures have the potential to be applied clinically to study and diagnose the early stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Barco announces the launch of its new Eonis clinical display family. Designed with clinical specialists in mind, the Eonis displays combine an innovative, built-in front sensor with Barco’s MediCal QAWeb cloud-based tool to ensure superior, controlled image quality. The Eonis 22-inch model is available in a black and a white version, with the latter offering a fully cleanable front glass panel to prevent infection – a first in the market.

Viztek is one of the first picture archive and communications service (PACS) vendors to provide viewing capabilities for digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) imaging. With the addition of this capability to Viztek’s Opal-Mammo software suite, hospitals and imaging centers now have a choice of the viewing software they select for use with their DBT system. Further, because the mammography suite offers integrated tracking software, facilities additionally benefit from the use of one workstation and an automated workflow for a faster, streamlined approach for mandatory MQSA reporting.

Forty-three of 44 providers interviewed by KLAS Research said they would buy tomosynthesis (3-D mammography) again despite the additional time it takes and the unpredictable reimbursement. This and other findings are available in the new KLAS report “Breast Tomosynthesis 2013: The Business Case.”

The Warrenville, Ill.-based CDH Proton Center, A ProCure Center, announced the installation of pencil beam scanning, which delivers a more precise dose of proton therapy to further minimize exposure of healthy tissue to radiation and allow radiation oncologists to better treat more complex tumors.

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