by
Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | July 01, 2019
From the July 2019 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
The solution for is CE marked and has received FDA 510(k) clearance.
Planmed
Over the past year, the company has made improvements to its Planmed Clarity 3D digital breast tomosynthesis system, adding the ability to send prior images directly to the system’s touchscreen monitor, instead of at the workstation.
“Now, it is at your side when doing positioning,” said Jukka Erkkilä, clinical director of Planmed Oy. “It will help you position the magnify view or the spot view. It will really help the technologists work. If you know the location of the lesion it’s easier to position and you have to do less retakes.”
It can also be useful when doing a stereotactic biopsy, Erkkilä said.
“This will speed up the process,” said Erkkilä, who noted that technologists often print out prior images for reference during follow-up studies and stereotactic procedures.
The company also recently released the Planmed Clarity S, a 2D mammography system targeted to the value segment and facilities looking to switch from analog to digital. It's also suitable for follow-up studies, such as spot and MAG imaging, Erkkilä said.
On the image quality side, the company has also been working on a new reconstruction algorithm for tomosynthesis that Erkkilä said will provide better slice separation. Synthetic 2D image quality has also been improved.
“The algorithm is roughly 60 percent faster than the previous one,” Erkkilä said.
QView Medical
After GE announced an upgrade to its GE Invenia ABUS automated breast ultrasound system, releasing Invenia 2.0 last year, with better image quality and higher resolution, the company did a validation and upgraded its QVCAD solution accordingly.
“The CAD process continually improves,” said Bob Foley, vice president of regulatory affairs and marketing strategy for QView Medical
The company also has enabled its CAD solution to display on any selected monitor in the reading area. It also allows multiple simultaneous users to access CAD results.
“Typically, you have a workstation with a monitor,” Foley said. “Now, you can take the images and display them on any given monitor in a rad room.”
Siemens Healthineers
At least year’s RSNA, Siemens Healthineers showcased syngo.Breast Care, an AI-based mammography reading and reporting solution that the company plans to release in the future.
“Reading mammograms can be challenging," said Pam Cumming, director of women's health for Siemens Healthineers. "With the integration of digital breast tomosynthesis into clinical practice, radiologists are now looking at hundreds of images with every study. So, we have to ask ourselves, what can we do to make it easier for radiologists to be able to read a growing number of images and without compromising diagnostic accuracy?”
