Multimodality Breast Imaging Workstation

The Synapse® Multimodality Breast Imaging Workstation configuration, by FUJIFILM Medical Systems (www.fujimed.com), is now available in the United States.

Designed for any facility performing full-field digital mammography (FFDM) and other modalities such as breast MR or ultrasound, the workstation provides all the functionality of Fuji's innovative Synapse PACS to add consistency and efficiency to the interpretation of breast imaging studies.

Unlike other dedicated FFDM diagnostic stations for mammography images, the Synapse workstation configuration can be used as a full-featured diagnostic workstation for any imaging exam, thereby providing additional workflow improvements.

"Synapse is cleared for the viewing of FFDM, our DryPix™ line of dry laser imagers are cleared for printing FFDM, and now we have the multimodality workstation configuration for diagnosis," said Andrew Vandergrift, Fuji's national program manager for women's healthcare imaging.

Laptop Tray Attachment for Angle Chair

HealthPostures (www.healthpostures.com) has taken another step into the "Reading Room of the Future" by adding a laptop tray attachment to its Stance® angle chair.

In collaboration with GE Healthcare, HealthPostures demonstrated the chair at RSNA 2004 in the infoRAD showcase exhibit.

Radiologists sometimes sit in one static position for 12 hours a day. The angle chair allows radiologists to move freely—from neutral sitting, to kneeling, to reclined sitting. Improved ergonomics can help decrease repetitive stress disorder while increasing accuracy, productivity and job satisfaction.

Wipe Test Fixture for Advanced Survey Meter

Cardinal Health, Inc. (www.cardinalhealth.com) has announced the availability of a wipe test fixture for its Victoreen® Advanced Survey Meter ASM 990 Series. The wipe test fixture enables the ASM 990 to detect removable radioactive contamination (wipe testing).

"The ASM 990 Series Wipe Test Fixture … not only conducts surveys, manages survey data and interfaces with software, but now also functions as an efficient wipe test counter, " said Jim Prout, sales manager for the radiation safety product line.

He added that the product can also more accurately measure Tc-99m than a Geiger-Mueller pancake probe and can be calibrated to various other isotopes, expanding its role as a wipe test counter.

Speech Recognition Solution

Crescendo (www.crescendo.com) of Canada has released its Crescendo Speech Processing solution for radiology. The solution, powered by SpeechMagic™ from Philips, includes a professional recognition vocabulary for radiology terminology.

Crescendo Speech Processing is a background netware component that works during the dictation process.

"Radiology is typically the most dictation-intensive department in a hospital," said Costa Mandilaras, president of Crescendo Systems Corporation. "Radiologists can keep dictating the way they are used to, using their preferred input device, while the SpeechMagic voice recognition system automatically adapts to their specific dictation characteristics and is constantly optimized through repeated use."