Chris Toth, president, global commercial and field operations for Varian, takes a tour of Varian’s new product introductions and major initiatives highlighted at ASTRO 2017. These include:
  • The Halcyon system, a new platform for cancer treatment that simplifies and enhances virtually every aspect of image-guided volumetric intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Halcyon is a powerfully intuitive platform designed to help improve and strengthen the fight against cancer and enable access to high quality care anywhere in the world.
  • The 360 Oncology care management platform, designed to integrate and coordinate patient care across the entire treatment and post-treatment journey. 360 Oncology brings together in a single platform, radiation, medical and surgical oncology, social services, primary care physicians, as well as the patient, to facilitate true collaboration and coordination.
  • The latest release of Varian’s Eclipse treatment planning software, incorporating both Multi-Criteria Optimization (MCO) and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) Support.  MCO enables planners to look at tradeoffs in a treatment plan when different clinical criteria are varied, greatly enhancing control over optimization.  GPU support decreases the dose calculation and inverse planning optimization times, providing a significant leap forward in speed.
  • HyperArc high definition radiotherapy, technology that unlocks the potential of non-coplanar treatment strategies to usher in a new era of precision in the delivery of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).

For more information: www.varian.com

Benjamin Movsas, M.D., chair of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Scientific Committee, explains how research presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting was chosen to reflect new trends in radiation therapy.

Watch the VIDEO "The Future of Radiation Oncology"

Watch the VIDEO "Clinical Considerations for Proton Therapy"

The new Visicoil MR is a helically-wound, flexible linear fiducial marker. The Visicoil MR hollow core design and multiple sizes mitigates the CT artifact often created by traditional gold seeds, offering you clearer visualization of the tissue to aid in faster and more accurate contouring. Visicoil MR's linear flexible design fixates and remains stable in soft tissue, giving you the confidence in accurate marker localization. Visicoil MR is available in some of the smallest needle sizes available for fiducial markers, including 21g and 22g needles. The benefits of smaller needles are improved patient safety and comfort during implantation. The smaller needles may also allow for faster CT sim after implant and ultimately treatment for your patients. The new Visicoil MR with enhanced MRI visibility allows you to see the marker more easily in MRI, both in T1 and T2. This makes for easier and faster MR/CT fusion.

Melissa Martin, MS, president of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), discusses her vision of the role of medical physics in healthcare and highlights the association's initiatives at the 2017 AAPM annual meeting in Denver.

Mark Pankuch, Ph.D., director of medical physics at the Northwestern Medicine Chicago Proton Center, discusses the clinical applications and practical aspects of operating a proton therapy center at the 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) annual meeting.

Angelic McDonald, MSRS, CRA, FAHRA, regional director of imaging, Baylor Scott & White Health and the president-elect of AHRA, discusses the biggest challenges she and other radiology administrators face at the 2017 AHRA annual meeting in Anaheim. Read the related article "Two Key Issues Keeping Radiologists Up at Night in 2017."

DAIC and ITN Editor Dave Fornell discusses some of the most innovative new computed tomography (CT) technology and trends at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) 2017 meeting. Read the article "Advances in Cardiac CT Technology" and watch VIDEO: Advances in Cardiac CT Imaging.

Matthew Budoff, M.D., FACC, professor of medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, endowed chair of preventive cardiology, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, discusses the PROMISE and PICTURE trials at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) 2017 meeting. Watch the VIDEO "The Role of Cardic CT in Value-based Medicine."

Todd Villines, M.D., FACC, FAHA, FSCCT, director of cardiac CT, Georgetown Medical Center, and president of the Society of Cardiovascular CT (SCCT), at the SCCT 2017 meeting. Watch the related VIDEO “The Future of Cardiac CT in the Next Decade,” an interview with Leslee Shaw, Ph.D. Read the related article “Advances in Cardiac CT Technology.”

David Bluemke, M.D., Ph.D., FAHA, professor of radiology, University of Wisconsin - Madison, incoming editor of RSNA’s journal Radiology and previously the radiologist in chief of imaging services at the NIH, at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) 2017 meeting. He discusses some of the advanced technology in development and early deplyment for CT imaging.

Watch the related VIDEO “The Future of Cardiac CT in the Next Decade,” an interview with Leslee Shaw, Ph.D.

Read the related article “Advances in Cardiac CT Technology.”

Eliot Siegel, M.D., associate vice chair of diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine, vice chair of information systems, University of Maryland, and chief of radiology, VA Maryland Healthcare System, discusses how machine learning (aka artificial intelligence or AI) is impacting radiology today and its role in the future.  

Read the article “How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Medical Imaging.” 

See examples of how AI can assess clinical images in the VIDEO “Examples of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging Diagnostics.”

ITN also created an indepth VIDEO Technology Report — Artificial Intelligence at RSNA with interviews with numerous AI vendors.

James Whitfill, M.D., chief medical officer, Innovation Care Partners, and Christopher Roth, M.D., director of imaging informatics strategy, Duke Health, explain how the joint HIMSS-SIIM Enterprise Imaging Workgroup is working to enhance collaboration between various medical specialties to improve patient care.

Related Enterprise Imaging Content:

RSNA Technology Report 2017: Enterprise Imaging

VIDEO: Technology Report: Enterprise Imaging 2017

VIDEO: Building An Effective Enterprise Imaging Strategy

Five Steps for Better Diagnostic Image Management

VIDEO: Enterprise Imaging and the Digital Imaging Adoption Model

Enterprise Imaging to Account for 27 Percent of Imaging Market

VIDEO: How to Build An Enterprise Imaging System

Rami Doukky, M.D., system chair, Division of Cardiology, professor of medicine, Cook County Health and Hospitals System, Chicago, discusses the new CMS requirements for clinical decision support (CDS) appropriate use criteria (AUC) documentation in cardiac imaging starting on Jan. 1, 2018. He spoke at the 2017 American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) Today meeting. Read the article "CMS to Require Appropriate Use Criteria Documentation for Medical Imaging Orders."

Alex Towbin, M.D., Neil D. Johnson Chair of Radiology Informatics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, discusses the growing importance of translational and reproducible research in medical imaging informatics at SIIM 2017. 

Watch another VIDEO "Achieving Meaningful Patient Engagement" with Towbin at SIIM 2018.

Read the article "Essentials of Pediatric Imaging" with input from Towbin.

Mach7 offers an enterprise imaging platform built around neutrality. The platform is more than just a VNA. Eric Rice, chief technology officer, discusses the importance of workflow protocols.

TeraMedica, a division of Fujifilm Medical Systems USA, demonstrates Connext Mobile V2 and other new product features.

Enterprise imaging system expert Louis Lannum was in charge of Cleveland Clinic's efforts to connect images and other data from 33 of its departments into a single, centralized database that could deliver the content through a viewer in the electronic medical record. He spoke on the key requirements for enterprise imaging systems at HIMSS 2017. Read the article and watch related videos at "RSNA Technology Report 2016: Enterprise Imaging."

Tom Kloetzly, sales and marketing VP for Shimadzu Medical Systems USA, explains the evolution of Shimadzu Corporation since its founding 142 years ago. Kloetzly focuses on the Trinias Interventional X-ray lineshown at RSNA. Kloetzly states “A key feature of Trinias, is the ability to image from fingertip to fingertip during a transradial approach which makes for much shorter hospital stay with the patient up and moving almost immediately after the procedure. Features Like RSM-DSA, a type of motion correction subtraction, eliminates patient movement during acquisition while STENTVIEW, is an enhanced visualization during stent placement in real-time." For more information, visit www.shimadzu.com/med/products/angio/index.html

Mitchell Goldburgh, enterprise imaging and analytics manager for NTT Data Services, formerly Dell Services, highlights how the company has transitioned clinical imaging from pure images into clinical intelligence at RSNA 2016.

Contributing Editor Greg Freiherr offers an overview of enterprise imaging advances at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2016.