by
John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter | April 30, 2018
From the April 2018 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
“You could have an angiographer for interventional cardiology and an ultrasound shoulder to shoulder, taking care of the patient, each one using its own devices, but at the same time, the information could interchange between interventional suite and ultrasound and ultrasound and interventional suite,” says GE’s Perez-Fernandez.
These capabilities could also enable confirmation in the success of operations, such as the resection of a tumor, with options such as functional MR available and ready for use.
“You might want to mid-procedure, while the patient is open, move him or her into an MR to check if the entire tumor has been removed,” says Kulkarni. “If not, you can come back and remove the entire tumor before you finish the operation.”
OEMs have developed, or are in the process of developing, fixed robotic
angiography systems equipped with elements found in mobile C-arm technology. GE
has added greater mobility to its IGS 7 platform, making it a first-of-its-kind,
“semi-fixed system,” according to Gustavo Perez-Fernandez, president of GE
Healthcare’s Imaging Guided Solutions.
He notes that a future without the need for imaging with radiation may one day be possible, provided MR technology and MR compatible devices continue to evolve.
Like all areas of health care, AI and machine learning are also poised to have a bigger impact on the fixed and mobile angiography units of tomorrow.
“What we see with AI is the ability to reduce the gaps between the exceptional practitioner and the average practitioner by providing access and guidance to those average ones in terms of how the best ones perform,” says Perez-Fernandez.
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