Nina Kottler, M.D., vice president of clinical operations, Radiology Partners, explains how the company developed its own artificial intelligence (AI) application to check the accuracy of radiologists' reports as they dictated and to follow-up automatically on incidental findings. She spoke at the 2019 Radiology AIMed conference.

She said the AI sits on top of Radiology Partners' natural language processing application and will immediately flag any comments that do not appear to make sense or might need clarification. Instead of forcing radiologists to change their workflow to create structured reports, Kottler said this AI software helps adapt the existing workflow to make the reports more consistent and able to be data mined later. 

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This is a walk through of the ViewRay MRIdian MRI-guided radiotherapy system installed at Henry Ford Medical Center — Cottage. The system has been in service for about two years. The walk through shows the entry way into the vault and the warnings about entering an MRI environment. Anyone who enters the treatment room must undergo a metal detector scan first to make sure all ferrous metal is removed.

Read more about the center's first year experience with the system.

Find more Henry Ford Hospital related content.

This is a quick walk-around video showing the Siemens Healthineers Multix Impact digital radiography (DR) room X-ray system at RSNA 2018. The system offers an intuitive operating system to help improve productivity. The in-room touch user interface on the tube allows the technologist to remain at the patient’s side. And when unable to be at the patient’s side, the technologist is able to monitor and optimize positioning from the control room via the system’s patient positioning camera, potentially reducing repeat imaging and unnecessary patient dose. Lights at the top of the X-ray system automatically indicate it the patient anatomy is aligned properly with the exam type the technologist chose for optimal imaging to reduce the need for retakes. 

The Multix Impact also offers an intuitive user interface and graphical organ program selection. The positioning guide display on both the in-room touch user interface and the workstation supports precise, consistent patient positioning. Advanced motorization and tracking reduce the physical exertion of technologists and help prevent repetitive stress injuries.

The FDA cleared the system In January 2019. 

At ASTRO 2018, Accuray showcased new patient-first innovations, including motion synchronization on Radixact, and the new CK VoLO, a fast optimizer on the CyberKnife system. Andrew Delao, senior director of marketing for Accuray, highlights the new features.

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CarolinaEast Health System, an award-winning health system in New Bern, N.C., was one of the first to collaborate with Philips to implement IntelliSpace Enterprise Edition, a comprehensive managed service. Watch the video to see how we collaborated together to streamline workflows and improve interoperability for better care.

Watch the related editorial interview VIDEO: Streamlining PACS Administration — Interview with Mike Ciancio, imaging systems administrator at CarolinaEast Health System.

With Intellispace Enterprise Edition as the foundation, Philips Healthcare is connecting facilities and service areas within enterprises, while developing standards-based interoperability that preserves customers' investments and best of breed systems. 

Wendie Berg, M.D., Ph.D., FACR, chief scientific advisor to DenseBreast-info.org and professor of radiology at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine/Magee-Women’s Hospital of UPMC, spoke with ITN Editorial Director Melinda Taschetta-Millane about some of the proposed amendments to the language being used for mammography reporting and quality improvement.

Read the article "FDA Proposes New Rules for Mammography Reporting and Quality Improvement"

Paul Chang, M.D., professor of radiology, vice chair of radiology informatics and medical director for enterprise imaging, University of Chicago, explains some of the issues with artificial intelligence (AI) and how hospitals can better prepare for its eventual implementation across the field of medicine. A key takeaway is that hospitals need an infrastructure and roadway for AI and deep-learning algorithms to operate. Chang said most health systems will not invest directly in AI, but will invest in analytics, which Chang said uses much of the same infrastructure required by AI.

Chang spoke on this topic at an AIMed breakfast briefing seminar in Chicago April 9, 2019. Listen to a webcast of this hour and 15 minute talk.

GE Healthcare goes beyond core equipment maintenance to help clients solve some of their most important asset and clinical performance challenges through digital solutions.

GE Healthcare Centricity Clinical Archive (CCA) Analytics, shown at RSNA 2018, works directly with the vendor neutral archive (VNA), allowing users to evaluate clinical, financial and operational processes across the healthcare system. The analytics solution shows how all of the different components of the archive and all of the imaging sources — departments, facilities and modalities — are working across the enterprise.

Max Wintermark, M.D., chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center, discusses the latest technologies to enhance magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans on display at the 2018 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting.

American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT) President Melissa Jackowski, Ed.D., R.T.(R)(M), FASRT, explains efforts by the society to have states implement licensure laws to ensure that only highly qualified RTs perform medical imaging procedures. She spoke at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2018 meeting.

Raza Alvi, M.D., a research fellow in radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, has been involved in a study of a positron-emission tomography (PET) FDG radiotracer agent to image sarcoidosis. The inflammatory disease affects multiple organs and usually include abnormal masses or nodules (granulomas) consisting of inflamed tissues that can form in the heart. Alvi presented on this topic at American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2019 meeting. 

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At RSNA 2018, iCad showed how its ProFound AI for digital breast tomosynthesis technology might help in the interpretation of tomosynthesis exams. Rodney Hawkins, vice president of marketing for iCad, discusses how this technology can better help detect the cancer.

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Karl Poterack, M.D., medical director, applied clinical informatics, Mayo Clinic, explains the role wearable devices will play in healthcare. He presented in several sessions at the 2019 Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society at (HIMSS) conference.

Poterack said there is a brewing tsunami of data in wearable technologies that healthcare systems will have to figure out how to integrate in the coming years. He said the key issue with wearable data is that there needs to be outcomes data showing the value of how many steps a patient accumulates, changes in heart rate over time, or blood pressure changes in patients with specific aliments. Without this , he said there is limited value in the information. 

Watch the related VIDEO: Use of Wearable Medical Devices for Cardiac Rehabilitation.

Look through a photo gallery of other new technologies at HIMSS19. 

Find news and videos from HIMSS 2019.

This is an example of a new endoscopic virtual peritoneal inflation tool on the patient's computed tomography (CT) imaging to aid in pre-procedural planning of endoscopic procedures. This is a new software feature on Fujifilm's Synapse 3D advanced visualization software released at the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) 2019 meeting. The software also enables 3-D imaging for surgical pre-procedural planning to assess the best entry points and angles. 

Look through a photo gallery of other new technologies at HIMSS19. 

Find news and videos from HIMSS 2019.

This is an example of a new endoscopic 3-D imaging simulator created from a patient's computed tomography (CT) scan using Fujifilm's Synapse 3D advanced visualization software. The feature was released at the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS)  2019 meeting. The software enables surgical pre-procedural planning to assess the best entry points and angles. The software also enables users to perform a virtual peritoneal inflation using the advanced imaging platform.

The software shows the anatomy color coded so structures are easier to identify and to aid navigation. In this example, a pancreatic tumor is highlighted in green, which is the target of this virtual simulation. 

Find news and videos from HIMSS 2019.

ITN Associate Editor Jeff Zagoudis speaks with Bill Hartsell, M.D., medical director at the Northwestern Medicine Chicago Proton Center, about operating costs, reimbursement and other financial aspects of proton therapy. 

Watch the VIDEO: Proton Therapy Treatment at Northwestern Medicine, part 1 of the interview with Hartsell.

Additional videos and coverage of Northwestern Medicine

This is a virtual heart with the same electrophysiology characteristics as the real patient unveiled by Siemens at the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) 2019 annual meeting in February. This "digital twin" technology is in development and will be able to create virtual, digital organs from a patient’s medical imnaging and other physiological data. In this case, the model was created using an ECG, MRI scan and other clinical data. It was shown as a way to help optimize cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) lead placement. CRT currently has a 30 percent nonresponder rate, which is mainly due to the placement of leads. This model allows virtual placement of the leads In various locations to test response prior to the implantation procedure. The green dot shows the location of the virtual lead. Siemens said the technology also might have applications for testing virtual ablations strategies to save procedure time when the patient is in the EP lab. 

Read more about the digital twin technology.

Look through a photo gallery of other new technologies at HIMSS19. 

Find news and videos from HIMSS 2019.

ITN Associate Editor Jeff Zagoudis speaks with Bill Hartsell, M.D., medical director at the Northwestern Medicine Chicago Proton Center, about day-to-day operations and cutting-edge treatments at the Warrenville, Ill. center.

Additional videos and coverage of Northwestern Medicine