Enter Your Email Address to Receive a
Copy of MedicExhange Member Demograhpics

Digital X-Ray systems and advanced applications from GE Healthcare are driving workflow and helping facilities change patient protocols, diagnosis and treatment

It’s been just a year since GE Healthcare , a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company, launched two advanced digital radiography X-ray systems, the Discovery XR650 and the Optima XR640.  Since RSNA 2008, along with delivering high-quality imaging, the digital systems have been working as agents for positive change, allowing radiology departments to improve patient care protocols, including diagnosis and treatment.

“Both systems result from GE’s commitment to providing outstanding image quality and to improving workflow,” says David Widmann, GE Healthcare’s General Manager for Global Diagnostic X-ray. “The Discovery XR650 and the Optima XR640 address a wide variety of patient procedures by allowing X-ray departments to see more and do more.”

Advanced Applications
Widmann credits the game-changing aspects of X-ray to the advanced applications offered on the Discovery XR650. “VolumeRAD (digital tomography), Dual Energy Subtraction and Auto Image Paste have changed the ways our customers think about X-ray and how to best use the technology with their patient population,” said Widmann. He added that GE has several examples where an immediate diagnosis was made in X-ray without requiring additional modality imaging. “It can save the patient from undergoing additional tests, which ultimately leads to reduced anxiety and better patient satisfaction.”

• VolumeRAD: Provides multiple high-resolution slice images including the chest, abdomen, extremities and spine. In a single sweep, it removes overlying structures, enabling a better view of the detail around the area of interest. The acquired data is then reconstructed similarly to CT and displayed as a set of images parallel to the detector panel.
• Dual Energy Subtraction: Provides multiple images; a standard radiographic image, an image with bones “subtracted” for an unobstructed view of soft tissue and an image of the bones to highlight foreign objects or calcified structures.
  

Advanced Applications Applied
Both VolumeRAD and Dual Energy Subtraction are exclusive to GE Healthcare.  These applications are changing the way some customers think about, and utilize x-ray in their care strategies.

• At Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in New Brunswick, Canada, physicians were able to confirm and treat a patient during a single session of care to investigate a bony anomaly in the rib area. Because of VolumeRAD, a treatment plan was obtained in one patient visit, eliminating the need to perform additional testing.
• A patient presented with head and neck injuries at the ER in a hospital in Alberta, Canada.  The physician was not comfortable diagnosing the injury based on routine X-rays and the nearest CT scanner was four hours away. The physician performed a VolumeRAD study that helped the physician clear the patient for spinal injury in a single session, saving a lengthy trip in an ambulance.
• A patient at a hospital in St. Louis, Mo., presented with a historic chest X-ray showing an anomaly in the left upper lung lobe as a bone growth, rather than a tissue lesion. Through a Dual-Energy Subtraction chest exam, the bony anatomy was removed from the images, increasing the visibility of the tissue-based anatomy. A 12 mm nodule was discovered directly behind the area of concern, ruling out the rib-related bony growth. Digital radiography with Dual-Energy Subtraction led directly to a definitive diagnosis.
  

“GE’s advanced applications provide radiologists with more information upon which they can make confident clinical diagnoses,” said Widmann. “We are proud of the excitement these advanced applications are creating in the industry and look forward to demonstrating how they can make a difference in each hospital’s care protocol.”

Source: GE Healthcare

You can discuss about GE Healthcare and its products & services in the GE Healthcare Company User Group