Diagnostic Imaging's Blog

Philips presents IT ecosystem

May 19, 2008 Philips presents IT ecosystem Greg Freiherr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Philips Healthcare focused attention in its booth on the company's IT "ecosystem" of about a dozen suppliers of software products that work with its iSite PACs. Philips presented an à la carte approach to the selection of various complementary products, exemplified by Amirsys' STATdx Diagnostic Decision Support System, which provides reference tools useful in… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 19, 2008 at 8:30pm — No Comments

PACS crash teaches administrator the hard way

May 19, 2008 PACS crash teaches administrator the hard way John C. Hayes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Toland was seven months into his first job as a PACS administrator, working for a 250-bed community hospital with a 70,000 per year exam volume, when the PACS crashed. One of two storage array controllers, a device that trafficks data to disc storage, had started to generate error codes and was nearing failure. It wasn't a crisis… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 19, 2008 at 8:30pm — No Comments

NEC unveils 30-inch medical LCD monitor

May 19, 2008 NEC unveils 30-inch medical LCD monitor Greg Freiherr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEC Display Solutions of America introduced a 30-inch full-color, wide-screen display in the Quest International booth. The 4-megapixel MultiSync MD304M, certified for radiology and emergency room environments, is slated to begin shipping in July. It offers 2560 x 1600-pixel resolution in portrait or landscape mode and is wide enough to compare… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 19, 2008 at 8:30pm — No Comments

GE’s Centricity RIS gets smart

May 19, 2008 GE’s Centricity RIS gets smart Greg Freiherr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Radiology reporting on the GE Healthcare Centricity RIS just got smarter with an intelligent algorithm that senses when dictated cases don't sound right. This "thought checker," scheduled to begin routine shipment by the end of this year as an upgrade to the Centricity RIS-IC Reporting module, uses the context of reports to identify possible errors. The… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 19, 2008 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Carestream previews autoregistration

May 19, 2008 Carestream previews autoregistration Greg Freiherr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The process to link two data sets acquired from different modalities or with the same modality at different times must now be done manually on the Carestream PACS. By early next year, these PACS users will be able to skip this time-consuming step using an automatic registration feature previewed at the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 19, 2008 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Candelis unveils archive appliance

May 19, 2008 Candelis unveils archive appliance Greg Freiherr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A new storage appliance, iMed-Stor, debuted at the Candelis booth. The DICOM-compliant archive appliance was engineered to securely and cost-effectively manage digital medical images, ideally from a single digital modality. It can be configured to work seamlessly alongside any PACS, according to the company, and can be outfitted with an optional… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 19, 2008 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Canadian agency pulls plug on molybdenum reactors

May 19, 2008 Canadian agency pulls plug on molybdenum reactors James Brice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Atomic Energy Canada has halted development work on twin reactors at Chalk River, ON. They were the planned successors for an aging research nuclear reactor that is the source of molybdenum-99 isotope used in 19 million nuclear medicine imaging procedures annually. Atomic Energy Canada (AECL) announced May 16 that work on the reactors would… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 19, 2008 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Foresight enhances DICOM converter

May 18, 2008 Foresight enhances DICOM converter Greg Freiherr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Foresight Imaging is previewing at the SIIM conference version 2.2 of its TIMS DICOM software, which helps facilities still using non-DICOM medical modalities to convert to DICOM. The work-in-progress supports audio recording and annotation (especially for speech pathology), audio playback, audio recording to CD/DVD, file attachment, editing of saved… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 18, 2008 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Carestream sets SIIM agenda

May 18, 2008 Carestream sets SIIM agenda Greg Freiherr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image analysis and reporting functionality are on display at Carestream's SIIM booth, where the company is showcasing its latest generation of computed radiography systems, the Kodak DIRECTVIEW Classic and Elite CR systems. Optional features include administrative analysis and reporting capabilities, which consolidate metrics from networked Kodak CRs onto the… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 18, 2008 at 8:30pm — No Comments

RamSoft integrates RIS/PACs, unveils new portal

May 17, 2008 RamSoft integrates RIS/PACs, unveils new portal Greg Freiherr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PACS/IT developer RamSoft debuted its PowerServer RIS/PACS at the SIIM conference, framing the new product as a true integration between RIS and PACS, free of HL7 interfacing. The company designed the web-based PowerServer RIS/PACS as the means for small facilities to increase efficiency, while allowing an upgrade path from existing… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 17, 2008 at 9:00pm — No Comments

Nuance spotlights enhancements at SIIM meeting

May 17, 2008 Nuance spotlights enhancements at SIIM meeting Greg Freiherr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the SIIM conference opened, Nuance unveiled a new version of its speech recognition product PowerScribe, incorporating enhancements and integration designed to improve radiology workflow. Version 5.0 offers a concentrated focus on accurate, comprehensive, and readily available clinical documentation, according to the company. Nuance also… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 17, 2008 at 8:30pm — No Comments

System removes CMS cases from teleradiologist’s work list

May 16, 2008 System removes CMS cases from teleradiologist’s work list John C. Hayes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A system presented at the SIIM meeting is able to develop work lists based on a patient's insurance and a radiologist's credentialing status, important considerations as more and more studies are interpreted away from central offices and facilities try to maximize reimbursement. The original inspiration for the system was to keep… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 16, 2008 at 10:00pm — No Comments

SIIM veterans talk about the big issues facing imaging informatics

May 16, 2008 SIIM veterans talk about the big issues facing imaging informatics John C. Hayes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It wasn't intended as a formal roundtable, but a question from the radiology news media — what are the biggest challenges facing the field — led some SIIM veterans, participants on a panel assembled by the association, into discussion Thursday of a laundry list of issues facing radiology informatics. Their comments also… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 16, 2008 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Perfusion MRI predicts malignant transformation of benign brain tumors

May 16, 2008 Perfusion MRI predicts malignant transformation of benign brain tumors H. A. Abella -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perfusion-weighted MR imaging can anticipate the transformation of low-grade gliomas into malignant tumors up to a year earlier than other imaging tests, according to British researchers. MRI could help determine which patients may benefit more from aggressive treatment. Albeit benign and slow growing, almost all… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 16, 2008 at 9:30pm — No Comments

McKesson acquires web-based PACS reference provider

May 16, 2008 McKesson acquires web-based PACS reference provider Greg Freiherr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IT giant McKesson has acquired Vivalog, a provider of web-based products that enable radiologists and other imaging specialists to organize and share image and reference case information used in daily practice. One such product, MyPACS.net, a web-based community for radiology decision support and information exchange, houses 18,000… Continue

Added by Diagnostic Imaging on May 16, 2008 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Konica debuts one-touch CR

May 16, 2008 Konica debuts one-touch CR Greg Freiherr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Konica Minolta Medical Imaging USA framed its ImagePilot CR system, introduced at the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) meeting in Seattle, as a new concept in digital radiography. ImagePilot CR, designed as an integrated digital imaging acquisition, review, and storage solution specifically for physician clinics, simplifies image acquisition to… Continue