There have only been incremental improvements in intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) over the past decade. However, three new technologies introduced in 2010, and a few more expected to enter trials or be commercialized in 2011, are pushing new frontiers.

Characterizing Plaque

During a time when the U.S. healthcare reform is on the minds of many within the medical community, physicians and hospital administrators are continuously looking for ways to cut spending. One avenue that physicians and hospitals are exploring is to limit the use of expensive medical devices, such as drug-eluting stents (DES).

In the same fashion that the echocardiogram helped transform the cardiac exam, recent developments in the field of portable ultrasound are providing cardiologists with a new way to visualize the heart at the initial patient screening.

Over the past few years, there have been three key areas of advancement in cardiovascular ultrasound technology – miniaturization, 3-D/4-D imaging and quantification measurements.

December 10, 2010 – The 5th annual list of the Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2011 is now available. The list, from the ECRI Institute, features the top health technology hazards that warrant critical attention by hospitals and other healthcare organizations.

December 10, 2010 – The first commercial production of generators using molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) produced with low-enriched uranium (LEU) targets in the United States is underway. The Lantheus TechneLite (Technetium Tc99m) generator received the first commercial scale batch from NTP Radioisotopes, a subsidiary of the Nuclear Energy Corporate of South Africa (NESCA)

One of the oddest items seen on the show floor was a cross-section of a real horse head preserved in plastic.
Ziosoft's Phyziodynamic software allows 3-D images data sets of the cardiac cycle to be put in motion.
Philips introduced its 510(k)-pending hybrid PET/MRI system.
McKesson is developing PACS connectivity that allows users to wirelessly access a workstation and control it from an iPad.
A Philips PET/MRI scan showing a breast cancer lesion from a study by the University of Geneva.
Tissue strain from cardiac motion can be seen in red around this aortic valve using a filter in the Phyziodynamic software.
Siemens introduced its works-in-progress PET/MRI scanner at RSNA 2010

Over the past several years, the focus on new technology at the annual Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) scientific meeting in Chicago has moved away from new devices to new software. RSNA 2010, held Nov. 28 through Dec. 2, emphasized this trend.

December 7, 2010 – Four distributors for a PACS and RIS system have been added in Latin America. Novarad has added Electrónica Medica (Panama), Medizintechnik (Chile), Represander (Colombia) and TAG (Guatemala) to represent its NovaPACS and NovaRIS systems in the region and support its sales team.

Both systems are available in Spanish and as a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering.

December 7, 2010 – Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) could be a useful tool for predicting local recurrence in lung cancer patients treated with radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Supporting data from a study was published in the December issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

December 6, 2010 – A works in progress data center viewer is available on the iPad. The IMPAX Data Center Viewer, by Agfa, is powered by Xero technology and is designed to enable portable point-of-care to patient images.

Clinicians can view reference images, including large multi-slice CT studies, as part of the electronic health record (EHR).

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