ECR REVIEW At the ECR, Rolf Nemitz, general
manager of Supersonic Imagine, spoke of these developments as stepping stones to a general purpose Aixplorer. Already the company is talking about “MultiWave” technology as the cor- nerstone of the Aixplorer’s operation, whereas Supersonic Imagine built its reputation initially on ShearWave tech- nology as the foundation for its innova- tive elastography applications. MultiWave is the cornerstone for
a general purpose product, which the company needs, if it is to compete suc- cessfully in the future. “You want to get the best general imaging system cover- ing everything – not just focus on one topic,” Nemetz said. Carestream is promoting one of the
The cart-based F37 ultrasound system is the first product to be launched since the merger between Hitachi and Aloka
while automatically optimizing image quality – all in a wheeled-package mea- suring 43 cm wide and 58 cm deep. Europe’s homegrown ultrasound
company, Supersonic Imagine, con- tinued its metamorphosis at the ECR from a provider of specialty scanners to one that may soon provide a high- powered, general-purpose platform. Over
the years since its founding,
Supersonic has added one application after another to its Aixplorer scan- ner, first in breast imaging, then in the prostate, and most the liver. Along the way,
recently in the com-
pany developed UltraFast Doppler for vascular imaging.
most fundamental changes in the radiol- ogy community with a marketing strat- egy based on its wireless x-ray detectors. The idea, said Carestream exec Helen Titus at the ECR, is to reel customers in with the “X-Factor,” named for the DRX-1 wireless detector that forms the cornerstone of its strategy. It works like this. Customers who
buy a wireless detector for use in a radiography suite might use that same detector in the early morning hours or evening for portable exams done on a digitally equipped mobile unit. This detector might come initially as part of a retrofit done by Carestream on a radiography suite or mobile x-ray unit whose lifespan the owner wants to extend. When those pieces of equipment wear out, or the customer wants to
expand further into DR, it is logical to buy new units optimized for the Car- estream wireless detectors, which have already been purchased. “We want to get them hooked on
this ‘X-Factor,” said Titus, Carestream worldwide director for digital capture solutions “It allows them to stay with Carestream as they grow.” At ECR, industry supertankers GE
it
and Philips followed familiar paths for the most part, emphasizing patient welfare, yet showed some signs of a course change. GE promoted its theme of “humanizing radiology” using its DoseWatch technology as a way to “show the face of the patient to the person behind the machine,” accord- ing to Alessio Schiavone, GE services marketing leader. DoseWatch was pre- sented as a comprehensive system for tracking patient exposure to ionizing radiation. Philips hawked its next gen- eration CT dose reduction software, just as it sought to redefine its women’s health offerings with the Microdose mammography product obtained last year through the acquisition of Sectra’s mammography assets. Dose is especially an issue when comes
to breast
tomosynthesis,
because in order for patients to reap the whole potential of this emerg- ing modality, tomo exams must be interpreted in the context of full field digital mammograms. Because two exposures had been necessary – one for the tomo, the other for the FFDM – women were receiving twice the radiation. But Hologic responded at the RSNA and ECR meetings with a newly commercialized algorithm that allows the synthesis of a 2D digital mammogram from the data obtained during breast tomo. And there are side benefits as well “We are not only reducing the dose but we are reduc- ing the acquisition time,” said Johan Verreydt, Hologic sales and service manager for Belgium/Luxemburg. “This gives us less compression time for the patent and makes it even more comfortable to have this pro- cedure.” Blending patient safety and comfort, Hologic hopes to re-ener- gize a maturing market for digital mammography and,
Supersonic Imagine continues to evolve its Aixplorer, shown in a demonstration at the ECR, into a general purpose ultrasound scanner. Photo by Greg Freiherr
APRIL/MAY 2012 DI EUROPE
not only re-inventing mammogra- phy but, like so many others in the industry today, itself.
37
in the process,
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