by
Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | November 22, 2016
From the November 2016 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Agfa HealthCare
Agfa is currently implementing its DR 600 X-ray suites, with the first one installed at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada. The DR 600 is a ceiling-suspended DR room designed for a hospital environment with both tabletop and chest imaging. The machine uses what the company calls Zero Force Technology to move the overhead tube in a lightweight way.
“For large hospitals and busy radiology centers, the speed of the positioning is very important,” says Jared Houk, vice president of the imaging business unit for Agfa. “We developed the Zero Force Technology to help with that positioning.” The company is anticipating FDA clearance next year for its DR800 model, which will combine radiography and fluoroscopy. The equipment will use Agfa’s MUSICA (Multi-Scale Image Contrast Amplification) software, and it will be the first time the software will be used for fluoroscopy.
“Digital fluoroscopy has been around for almost 30 years with very little improvement,” says George Curley, Agfa’s senior marketing manager. “Most of the improvement has been focused, rightfully so, on lowering patient and operator dose. Typically, lowering dose on any digital image also means reducing image quality. With MUSICA, users can lower radiation dose and still improve image quality. With our patented fractional multi-frequency processing, MUSICA helps visualize fine details throughout the entire image automatically and consistently provides images at a brightness and sharpness that the radiologists prefer, regardless of the patient size, body part or exposure parameters. This virtually eliminates the need for time-consuming post-processing, and provides increased productivity for technologists and radiologists.”
Agfa has also expanded its DR panel line with new 10-inch-by- 12-inch and 14-inch-by-17-inch detectors in both GOS scintillator and CsI scintillator. The detectors are lighter weight, have sharing options and an in-bucky charging option and optional full-field automatic exposure detection, Houk says.
Del Medical
Del Medical’s newest release is the OTC15-T, an overhead suspension system with synchronized auto-tracking to Del’s EV800 elevating four-way, float-top table and VS300 wall stand.
“Tracking systems in general are becoming more popular in the U.S. market,” says Tony Galles, senior vice president of sales at Del Medical. “The U.S. market has been slower to accept auto-tracking systems, primarily due to [the] technologist’s ability in the past to complete radiographic procedures more quickly with manual movement systems. As technology has improved we’re excited to see this trend is changing and showing growth, specifically in the more demanding sectors such as hospitals, imaging centers and busy orthopedic practices.”
