Siemens showcases SPECT/CT, PET/CT and software platforms at SNMMI
June 12, 2017
by John W. Mitchell, Senior Correspondent
At SNMMI 2017 in Denver, Siemens Healthineers offered a new array of nuclear imaging products designed to bring flexibility to health care providers pacing their adoption of new technology at a rate their individual budgets allow.
The company is also seeking to leverage its reputation for technology investments in SPECT/CT, PET/CT and molecular imaging software with the demands of outcome measurements and bundled payments.
The Symbia Intevo Bold SPECT/CT offers customers an option for expanding into dual-use capability. According to Collin Schaffer, Global Product Marketing Manager with Siemens Healthineers, while the system was just FDA-cleared in January, it’s officially being rolled out at SNMMI 2017.
“But we've been talking to hospitals and clinics about it, and we've already had five installs worldwide,” Schaffer told HCB News.
The reason for the early demand is that the Symbia Intevo Bold system is designed for the growing practice of CT and SPECT dual-use. This is especially true for sites that are seeking backup CT capability, but also want the option for performing both SPECT and CT on patients in the same scheduled exam.
The system also – for the first time – offers the SAFIRE (Sinogram Affirmed Iterative Reconstruction) algorithm, which Siemens said can reduce patient radiation exposure by up to 60 percent.
“Symbia Intevo Bold advances the dual-use capabilities of SPECT/CT, enabling exceptional image quality in both forms of imaging at the lowest possible dose,” said Jim Williams, head of Siemens Healthineers Molecular Imaging.
According to Schaffer, the unit also features iMAR (iterative Metal Artifact Reduction) to handle the growing population of patients with dental and orthopedic implants. Any image of such patients is at risk of artifacts that lead to difficult interpretation of exams, which can increase costs, and inconvenience the patient.
“From 2016 to 2026 the number of orthopedic hip and knee joint replacement procedures is projected to double in the United States. So this is a system that enables hospitals and clinics to to address even the most challenging exams with the best image quality at the lowest possible dose,” Schaffer told HCB News.
Siemens also announced at SNMMI that the FDA has cleared its Biograph Horizon Flow edition PET/CT system. The system allows continuous bed motion scanning to enable personalized PET scans based on a patient’s anatomy. The unit is designed for radiation therapy treatment planning, and to capture respiratory gating images up to five times faster than previous unit designs.
The Biograph Horizon Flow edition PET/CT system is designed on similar technology to Siemens’ previously released high-end dual units, but it features a combination of design changes and technology enhancements to bring down the price.
“It’s got a slightly smaller bore size, fewer detector blocks and it’s air-cooled, rather than water-cooled, which helps reduce siting costs," Angela Bell, product marketing manager for Molecular Imaging, told HCB News.
According to Bell, the affordability of the unit is ideal for health systems that want to expand PET/CT capability from flagship treatment centers to community hospital locations.
The final Siemens Healthineers SNMMI product release centers around FDA clearance of the new release of syngo.via VB20 Molecular Imaging Software. This platform applies big data and artificial intelligence characteristics to calculate the tumor burden of a patient up to 30 times faster than manual calculations. This helps physicians and patients make better decisions about ongoing therapy. It can both improve treatments or offer better end-of-life decisions if the tumor burden is too great for successful treatment.
“Patients can have dozens of tumors, and this automated function helps physicians calculate the tumor burden – or likelihood of survivability or response to treatment – in a few minutes rather than hours, in some cases," Anatoliy Kalinovskiy, clinical marketing manager, Molecular Imaging told HCB News.
The syngo.via VB20 platform offers one-click calculations. It allows data point comparison from two points in time to provide insight into tumor progression. Also, the platform can provide a visualization and quantify patient uptake of certain radiopharmaceuticals for comparison to a database of other patients.
The company is also seeking to leverage its reputation for technology investments in SPECT/CT, PET/CT and molecular imaging software with the demands of outcome measurements and bundled payments.
The Symbia Intevo Bold SPECT/CT offers customers an option for expanding into dual-use capability. According to Collin Schaffer, Global Product Marketing Manager with Siemens Healthineers, while the system was just FDA-cleared in January, it’s officially being rolled out at SNMMI 2017.
“But we've been talking to hospitals and clinics about it, and we've already had five installs worldwide,” Schaffer told HCB News.
The reason for the early demand is that the Symbia Intevo Bold system is designed for the growing practice of CT and SPECT dual-use. This is especially true for sites that are seeking backup CT capability, but also want the option for performing both SPECT and CT on patients in the same scheduled exam.
The system also – for the first time – offers the SAFIRE (Sinogram Affirmed Iterative Reconstruction) algorithm, which Siemens said can reduce patient radiation exposure by up to 60 percent.
“Symbia Intevo Bold advances the dual-use capabilities of SPECT/CT, enabling exceptional image quality in both forms of imaging at the lowest possible dose,” said Jim Williams, head of Siemens Healthineers Molecular Imaging.
According to Schaffer, the unit also features iMAR (iterative Metal Artifact Reduction) to handle the growing population of patients with dental and orthopedic implants. Any image of such patients is at risk of artifacts that lead to difficult interpretation of exams, which can increase costs, and inconvenience the patient.
“From 2016 to 2026 the number of orthopedic hip and knee joint replacement procedures is projected to double in the United States. So this is a system that enables hospitals and clinics to to address even the most challenging exams with the best image quality at the lowest possible dose,” Schaffer told HCB News.
Siemens also announced at SNMMI that the FDA has cleared its Biograph Horizon Flow edition PET/CT system. The system allows continuous bed motion scanning to enable personalized PET scans based on a patient’s anatomy. The unit is designed for radiation therapy treatment planning, and to capture respiratory gating images up to five times faster than previous unit designs.
The Biograph Horizon Flow edition PET/CT system is designed on similar technology to Siemens’ previously released high-end dual units, but it features a combination of design changes and technology enhancements to bring down the price.
“It’s got a slightly smaller bore size, fewer detector blocks and it’s air-cooled, rather than water-cooled, which helps reduce siting costs," Angela Bell, product marketing manager for Molecular Imaging, told HCB News.
According to Bell, the affordability of the unit is ideal for health systems that want to expand PET/CT capability from flagship treatment centers to community hospital locations.
The final Siemens Healthineers SNMMI product release centers around FDA clearance of the new release of syngo.via VB20 Molecular Imaging Software. This platform applies big data and artificial intelligence characteristics to calculate the tumor burden of a patient up to 30 times faster than manual calculations. This helps physicians and patients make better decisions about ongoing therapy. It can both improve treatments or offer better end-of-life decisions if the tumor burden is too great for successful treatment.
“Patients can have dozens of tumors, and this automated function helps physicians calculate the tumor burden – or likelihood of survivability or response to treatment – in a few minutes rather than hours, in some cases," Anatoliy Kalinovskiy, clinical marketing manager, Molecular Imaging told HCB News.
The syngo.via VB20 platform offers one-click calculations. It allows data point comparison from two points in time to provide insight into tumor progression. Also, the platform can provide a visualization and quantify patient uptake of certain radiopharmaceuticals for comparison to a database of other patients.