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Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | March 16, 2020
From the March 2020 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
With a continued shift to procedures taking place in outpatient surgery centers, both fixed and mini C-arms are slimming down and becoming more portable.
Manufacturers are also continuing to focus on keeping radiation dose down and providing technologists with faster and more streamlined workflows.
Here’s a look at the latest releases in the C-arm space.
Canon Medical Systems USA
Canon Medical Systems USA is offering its Alphenix Aero, a slimmed-down version of its Alphenix for outpatient labs.
“It gives price-conscious outpatient labs a solution without going to a mobile C-arm,” said Kristin Jones, acting managing director for the vascular business unit of Canon Medical Systems USA.
The company also has a program for its install base called Alphenix Encore Plus Program, which allows customers to upgrade to the Alphenix system by using the same footprint and potentially reusing injectors and monitors.
“We think this is a really nice program for our install base to get the advantages of a completely new system, without the price tag or construction impacts that traditionally occur,” Jones said.
GE OEC Touch for OEC Elite CFD Live Zoom
GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare has had a number of new introductions, including the OEC One CFD compact mobile C-arm, which brings a CMOS flat panel detector to budget-minded facilities and surgery centers for everything from vascular to orthopedic procedures.
"The flat detectors are really seen as the preferred technology and we wanted to make sure that throughout our product portfolio we have a flat detector option available to all of our customers," said Dan Strauch, chief marketing officer of GE Healthcare's surgery business. "This gives them a fully capable system, but at a lower price point, if they're opening a surgery center office for the first time or for hospital procedures."
Before last year’s RSNA annual meeting, GE introduced OEC Touch, a new touchscreen user interface for the OEC Elite platform.
"Now the radiologic technologist can control all critical functions on the touch panel," Strauch said. "They don't have to go back to the workstation. For example, during a vascular procedure, a technologist may have to go to the workstation as many as 15 times in one hour, blocking the physician's view of the image each time."
