From the January 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


The warning features that vendors are now adding to their scanners are already incorporated into the company’s devices.

NeuroLogica also offers RadRedux, an algorithm that enhances image quality and reduces noise using a post-reconstruction approach. “Most of the people that we’re scanning are in the neuro ICU and are getting daily scans for up to seven days,” says Webster. “Our clinicians challenged us to reduce the dose because we’re scanning the patients over and over and over again out of medical necessity.”


RadRedux, which can reduce dose by up to 50 percent from original settings, is incorporated into the new BodyTom scanner.

In addition to introducing the full-body CT scanner, NeuroLogica has been busy abroad. “We’ve been working with the German government to put a CereTom in the back of an ambulance, and in January we will unveil the world’s first, multi-slice stroke and brain trauma-specific ambulance in Germany,” says Webster.

The German authorities trained their emergency response operators to assess whether an incoming call necessitates the use of the stroke ambulance. Once a relevant incident is identified, the ambulance will be able to scan the patient at the scene of the accident and immediately send the information back to a physician at a hospital, who can then outline a course of treatment to be initiated on site. “The ambulance has been outfitted with everything necessary to treat almost all traumatic brain injuries or stroke,” says Webster.

In addition to initiating treatment on scene, the respondents can determine which hospital is best for the patient to be transported to, explains Webster. The ambulance will make its debut in Germany later this month.

EXTRA

A third-party view: CT refurbishers chime in
When Platinum Medical Imaging works on restoring a used GE CT back to life, the last part of the process is the most difficult. The final step is an eight-page image quality report, which “documents the overall performance of the unit to OEM specifications,” Robert Costa, the company’s COO, wrote in an e-mail to DOTmed News. “This is signed off by our in-house physicist, and then re-performed on installation to confirm compliance.”

By the time Platinum’s CTs are ready for end-users, they’ve gone through a 95-point checklist and even a paint job that ensures the systems are the correct OEM color and texture. As veterans in the refurbishment and service business, many ISOs offer a unique perspective on the industry.

Refurbishers cite 16-slice CT scanners as the high demand units of today. “[There] does not seem to be as much focus on really high-end gear,” Greg Kramer, president and CEO of C&G Technologies, Inc., wrote in an e-mail to DOTmed News. “16-slice is generally the bread and butter choice.”

January 2011 Magazine

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