OSAKA – Breast CAD schemes that hunt for masses and clustered microcalcifications have improved substantially in recent years, and their widespread adoption in the clinical setting is a testament to their growing popularity.
But some researchers think CAD could be a lot better, and potentially find cancers sooner, if more breast CAD systems also looked for architectural distortion – irregularities in the parenchymal pattern on mammograms without the presence of a visible central mass.

The rapid advances in breast imaging techniques are making radiologists more accurate in diagnosing breast cancers and aiding surgeons in providing the best treatment options for patients. In fact, “seeing more” is forcing radiologists and surgeons to biopsy an increasing number of multiple lesions that ultimately lead to a more definitive diagnosis – and they are accomplishing the biopsies faster than the time it takes to perform stereotactic X-ray procedures.

Medical technology leasing is critical to hospitals and healthcare systems’ ability to compete or – even more simply – exist. Leasing has become the preferred strategy for organizations that can’t absorb the outright costs of expensive technology but need to continuously upgrade equipment to meet patients’ needs.

Women who visit the Elizabeth Jekot, M.D. Breast Imaging Center in Richardson, TX, get more than excellent healthcare and expert medical attention; they walk into an environment that was conceived and designed to be a soothing and compassionate place. “We wanted to create a very warm, loving center,” said Elizabeth Jekot, M.D., founder and medical director, “a patient-centered, love-based practice, in a soft, nonthreatening environment.”

With just 25 beds and seven attending physicians, tiny Ellenville Regional Hospital lives large in its upper New York state rural community, combining cutting-edge procedures and technologies for high-quality medical care. Local residents look to the independent critical access hospital for services ranging from radiology and emergency care, to physical therapy and cardiology as well as to provide a gateway to larger, specialized facilities.


What is Ziehm's mission in the U.S. market?
Strobel: In imaging, with our competitors, we are a little bit smaller in size. We are a technology-driven company, so that means we try to be innovative, and we deliver new products and new solutions in a short rate. What we need for that is market perceptiveness. Many people come here to learn about the latest medical advancements. We are able to identify trends and convert them within our innovative engineering company so that we have new products ready to go.

What impact will this newest fusion modality — PET/MR — have on imaging and the industry?

The number of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedures has grown at an average of 10 percent annually over the last 10 years, and there are no signs of stopping as continuous advancements in MR have generated more precise diagnosis for brain and cardiac imaging, bringing it to the forefront of cutting-edge imaging technology.

Early in 2005, The Women’s Center for Radiology, in Orlando, FL, shut down their screen-film mammography systems and switched over to an entirely digital screening environment. They replaced their six analog systems with four Selenia digital mammography systems from Hologic. “We had been a beta site for another manufacturer,” said founder and medical director Susan Curry, M.D. “We knew that digital was the way we needed to go, and Hologic was far and away the superior technology.”


The “one-size-fits-all” approach to the radiology workstation no longer suits the radiologists’ needs. While vendors are racing to add more features and devices designed to raise the level of the radiologists’ performance, solutions lag behind in a field where technology is constantly evolving.

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