Carestream Health’s DRX-Revolution Nano Mobile X-ray System is helping to avoid the possible spread of hospital-acquired infection from adult patients to the youngest patients in Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
VCU Health, an academic medical centre, installed the DRX-Revolution Nano as a unit dedicated solely to the NICU.
“Having one system dedicated to the floor will help reduce the chances of hospital-acquired infections going from patient to patient and room to room,” said Robert Jarvis III, Diagnostic Imaging Modality Manager at VCU Health.
The DRX-Revolution Nano’s compact footprint allows for easy positioning in critical care units, while providing high-quality digital radiography imaging.
“We made the purchase with the mindset that it will support the NICU population in our hospital, and the small footprint makes it easy to get in and out of the rooms,” Jarvis added.
VCU Health has a large fleet of Carestream DRX-Revolution Mobile X-ray Systems, as well as the Carestream DRX-Evolution Plus system.
Carestream’s X-Factor platform lets facilities share the same wireless detector seamlessly across all Carestream DRX products and allows technologists to move easily between different systems with minimal training time, speeding up workflow and exams.
“The biggest advantage is the graphical user interface with the software,” said Jarvis, who also praised Carestream’s image quality. “I can train someone on the DRX-Evolution Plus because it’s the same software on the DRX-Revolution and the Nano. They can go to any Carestream system and pick it up right away.”
For more information, visit: www.carestream.com
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Robocath, a company that designs, develops and commercializes cardiovascular robotic systems for the treatment of vascular diseases, has recently announced that its first robotic solution, R-One, met all its primary efficacy and safety endpoints in the first pre-clinical study. The prospective, randomized, controlled, multi-operator study evaluated the efficacity and safety of the robotic system compared to a manual procedure. Results showed that there was no significant difference between the procedures for all the primary endpoints and that R-One achieved 100% technical success, no major adverse cardiac events (MACE), total protection from X-rays for the operator as well as no arterial damage.  This study demonstrates how safe, intuitive and easy to use this solution is with only a one-minute difference in procedure duration between the two groups. R-One will bring huge benefits during Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCI) to both patients, in terms of intervention precision, and operators, with increased comfort. R-One is expected to be commercially available at the end of the year in Europe and the Middle East.  The pre-clinical prospective, randomized, controlled, multi-operator study was designed to demonstrate the non-inferiority of R-one compared to manual percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in a porcine model.  In total, 42 arteries were stented either manually (21) or with robotic assistance (21); 24 arteries were analysed for patency and flow at 30 days and 24 arteries went through histopathological analysis. Endpoints included technical success and MACE.
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The Mobilett Elara Max features easy-to-clean system surfaces with an antimicrobial coating to reduce the risk of hospital acquired infections. A comprehensive IT security concept protects sensitive patient data and the secure integration of Mobilett Elara Max into the hospital’s IT environment provides access to all relevant data at any time. Thanks to the smooth manoeuvrability and flexible positioning of the X-ray arm, the system facilitates easy access to the patient and optimizes workflows in radiology, thus increasing efficiency. Mobile X-ray machines, which are used in a variety of rooms in numerous clinical situations, particularly represent an increased risk for the spread of germs. One in ten patients worldwide is affected by hospital acquired infections. In the USA, more patients die from hospital germs than from AIDS, car accidents and breast cancer combined. As pathogenic germs may survive on surfaces for weeks and months, the Mobilett Elara Max is equipped with an antimicrobial surface. This significantly reduces the number of microorganisms on the system surface. The cleaning of the new mobile X-ray machine has also been significantly simplified through an innovative device design: Closed surfaces, reduced gap dimensions and fully integrated cables make system cleaning easy. The numerous locations, where mobile X-ray systems are used, require seamless, but nevertheless secure integration into the hospital’s existing IT infrastructure. The Mobilett Elara Max is therefore equipped with a comprehensive cybersecurity package, which helps withstand digital threads. Furthermore, virtual workstation technology enables the user to install additional hospital software on the device, thus obtaining access to all the necessary information directly at the patient’s bedside without affecting the safety of the X-ray machine. As part of the Max product family from Siemens Healthineers, Mobilett Elara Max benefits from the advantages provided by a standardized technology platform, ranging from radiography to fluoroscopy through to mobile X-ray imaging. This allows the standardization of workflows across diverse examinations, as well as the common use of detectors for different platform systems.

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AI-Rad Companion Chest CT, an intelligent software assistant for radiology, was recently
awarded the CE mark. This artificial intelligence (AI)-based software helps radiologists interpret CT (Computed Tomography) images of the thorax faster and more precisely, and to document the findings in less time with the help of automatic measurements. AI-Rad Companion Chest CT is the first AI-based application on the new AI-Rad Companion platform, and is vendor-neutral, which means the software can evaluate image data from many CT system manufacturers. Siemens Healthineers plans to expand this platform so that more and more intelligent algorithms will be available for additional organs and modalities. This will enable the company to consistently expand its portfolio of effective solutions for AI-based clinical decision support. Results drawn up by radiologists can vary by some 10-20 percent, depending on the investigator. Algorithm-based diagnostics completely obviate this variability, generating constant results. That alone is a huge advantage of AI platforms like AI-Rad Companion. Using CT images of the thorax (chest), the software can differentiate between the various structures of the chest, highlight them individually, and mark and measure potential abnormalities automatically. This applies equally to organs such as the heart and lungs, aorta, and vertebral bodies. The software automatically turns the findings into a quantitative report, which can be called up via the image viewing system used by the radiologist in the clinical routine. In certain circumstances, the intelligent assistant also alerts physicians to potential abnormalities that would otherwise have been missed because they were not the focus of the original examination, e.g. chance discoveries of pathological dilations of the aorta (aneurysms). Examination using a chest CT is a procedure often used in everyday clinical practice. For radiologists, this means more examinations in a limited amount of time and usually for low reimbursement rates. AI-Rad Companion Chest CT is a tool that can actually simultaneously increase productivity and quality in diagnostic radiology. AI-Rad Companion Chest CT is a cloud-based solution and uses certified, secure teamplay infrastructure that complies with the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the U.S., and with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU. The software conforms to Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standards. The images and all supporting information can be made automatically available in the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) in line with the radiologist’s individual requirements.
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