Enhancement Allows Angiographic CT

The Food and Drug Administration has provided 510(k) clearance to Siemens Medical Solutions (www.medical.siemens.com) for DynaCT, an enhancement for C-arm angiography systems that allows soft tissue imaging in the angiography suite.

DynaCT is the first application in the industry that enables clinicians to perform angiographic CT (ACT) with the AXIOM Artis flat panel detector (FD) technology systems.

"The DynaCT enhancement for our AXIOM Artis product line is expected to have a significant impact on clinicians' ability to diagnose and treat stroke patients when time is of the essence," said Manfred Fink, vice-president of the Siemens angiography and x-ray division. "The technology will also benefit patients for body-interventional procedures and image-guided tumor therapy. Physicians and hospitals will be able to obtain CT-like images without the additional need of standard CT systems to be used as interventional tools."

DynaCT utilizes ACT to obtain images through DYNAVISION-based rotational angiography, which is provided by the AXIOM Artis FD systems. Image acquisition can be achieved with a 10-second C-arm spin. The volume set is then reconstructed on Siemens' LEONARDO workstation and available for assessment within a short period of time.

Assessment Tool and e-Radiology Solution for Medical-Grade Network

Cisco Systems, Inc. (www.cisco.com) has announced two new additions to its Medical-Grade Network initiative-the Cisco Medical-Grade Network Assessment tool and Cisco e-Radiology solution.

The assessment tool enables healthcare executives to objectively evaluate their network capacity and capabilities against the delivery of their current and future healthcare services and business objectives. The e-radiology solution is a suite of Cisco-powered offerings that combines PACS applications with a converged network to help optimize the transfer, access and storage of medical images and patient data to enhance consultation, time to diagnosis and time to treatment.

"With the help of an intelligent, integrated network, care can be provided anywhere/anytime to help improve patient treatments and increase caregiver productivity," said Pierre-Paul Allard, vice-president of enterprise marketing for Cisco.

Hewlett-Packard (www.hp.com) has released its HP Medical Archiving Solution that will allow physicians to have quick, immediate retrieval of patient studies.

The HP Medical Archiving Solution was designed for radiology practices faced with the challenges of growing volumes of image data. Regardless of the source—CT, MR, mammography, digital x-rays or PACS—the solution provides the flexibility to manage data distributed across tiers of storage and the ability to rapidly access patient studies using familiar terms, such as image type or patient information, using a form of streaming technology.

The HP Medical Archiving Solution also helps hospitals and other healthcare organizations comply with HIPAA requirements guiding the storage, transmission and protection of patient data.

Essential Foundation for Electronic Health Records

Optio Software (www.optiosoftware.com) has launched the Optio QuickRecord® Suite, a secure, cost-effective way to provide physicians and other caregivers with real-time access to patient information across the continuum of care.

The Optio QuickRecord Suite provides a universal hub and Web-enabled access point for all patient documents and information whether they originate as printed documents, online forms or data streams. The system provides seamless integration with all existing healthcare systems, ranging from ADT (Admission Discharge Transfer), lab and radiology to transcription, cardiology, PACS and imaging.

"QuickRecord Suite helps healthcare organizations reduce errors, waste, delays and inefficiencies in clinical and business processes, while improving patient safety and the quality of care," said Steve Kaye, senior vice-president of marketing and product management for Optio Software.