From the April 2018 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Ramping up investment and manufacturing of these automated, intelligent solutions is inevitable, according to Dr. Albert Hsiao, an assistant professor of radiology at the University of California San Diego.

“The sheer amount of information available to us through medical imaging has been on a steep incline, while the number of physicians available to handle this work is essentially flat,” he says.


A lower price point for advanced cardiac imaging
In March 2017, at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session and Expo, Siemens Healthineers unveiled a portable cardiac ultrasound system with high-level capabilities. The laptop-based ACUSON Bonsai is equipped with several of the features found on the company’s SC2000 premium cardiac ultrasound platform.

“This is to meet the needs of the routine echo space,” says Marti McCulloch, cardiology segment director for North America for Siemens Ultrasound. “When you look at the data, there are 34 million echos done per year. A lot of hospitals are moving toward more portable studies at the bedside.”

Also, when hospital administrators look at staff reductions as a way to curb spending, McCulloch says the transporters are usually the first to go. If a hospital doesn’t have transporters then portable systems are needed.

“If reimbursement is reduced, the hospitals have to increase their productivity and workflow without compromising the quality of the exam,” says McCulloch. “What we are trying to do is combine the best of both worlds in a price point that is attractive to the end users and does a great job for the patient.”

More affordable innovations are also emerging in the molecular imaging space, where access to SPECT technology is often hampered by the price tag and efforts to lower spending. One reason hospitals are eager to access this technology is so they can perform cardiac stress/rest exams, which account for 59 percent of the nuclear medicine scans performed in the U.S.

To meet this need, Philips has introduced a lower-cost-of-ownership SPECT system, CardioMD IV, that can fit in almost any existing camera room without requiring renovations.

CardioMD IV is equipped with advanced reconstruction and cardiac quantification software, which helps to improve workflow for cardiac imaging. The IntelliSpace Portal platform provides clinicians with access to the latest cardiac SPECT quantification, review and reporting applications and also allows for collaboration between cardiologists and referring physicians.

April 2018 Magazine

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