This report originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of DOTmed Business News

Leveling PET/CT coaches is a precision game and the quality of patient imaging depends on it. The future of mobile biomedical unit leveling appears to be just pulling in with the Automatic Leveling System, a new technology developed jointly by Medical Coaches and Siemens in partnership with Power-Packer, a hydraulic motion control engineering company.

DOTmed caught up with one of the first mobile biomedical professionals to use the system. Ken Hyatt, Transportation Director for the PET/CT Center of North Florida, a part of the Florida Radiation Oncology Group (FROG) and the Oncure Medical network, works with five biomedical trailers, three of which are outfitted with the Automatic Leveling System.

"It works great -- you just walk up to it and push a button and watch it work. It saves a lot of time for our drivers," says Hyatt. "I wish I had it on all my trailers."

Hyatt says more than 10,000 scans are conducted in his coaches every year. The Automatic Leveling System slices several minutes off the typical leveling time and could potentially improve patient throughput.

"It takes about two and a half to three minutes now where it used to take 15 to 20 minutes to set up," says Hyatt.

Medical Coaches Marketing Director Chad Smith explained the functionality of the system, which is currently used by about five customers on Siemens-exclusive medical trailers.

"The reason we came up with the Automatic Leveling System was to ensure the most accurate stability levelness of the PET/CT equipment on site," says Smith. "No matter where they pulled up they could hit a button and it would level from side to side, front to back, to exactly zero, so that when they went to scan patients they know they are getting the most accurate feedback from the scanner."

Scanning patients in improperly leveled trailers could lead to inaccurate patient imaging.

"If your coaches aren't level, you're going to throw your scans off, which throws your treatment planning off," Hyatt says.

Tim Seksinsky, On-Highway Market Leader for Power-Packer, spoke with DOTmed about the nuts and bolts of product development, which began in 2006 when Medical Coaches and Siemens found that the leveling of the longer, more heavy-duty PET/CT coaches needed to be more exact.

"The goal set in 2006 was for Power Packer to create a system to reduce the time to level the Medical Coaches PET/CT mobile unit from 15 minutes with the two-point landing gear system to five minutes or less with an extremely accurate four-point hydraulic leveling system," notes Seksinsky.

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