Siemens Healthineers has completed the first two installations of its SOMATOM go.Up CT platform in the United States.

The two scanners are situated in Missouri at St. Luke’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging (CDI) Chesterfield, Missouri, and St. Luke’s CDI Frontenac, Missouri, and will enable physicians in those locations to control routine scans using a detachable tablet and remote, allowing them to remain with their patients and move less between scanning and control rooms.

“If you do not have to go back to the workstation as much, you can actually spend your entire time in the scan room, focused on the patient,” Mark Palacio, product manager for the SOMATOM go.Up CT platform, told HCB News. “That’s the groundbreaking part of the GO workflow, relying on this mobile operation through our scan and GO technologies.”
Patients can sometimes feel anxious when physicians step out of the room, with the constant movement between the scanner and the control room prolonging exams. The constant presence of the physician can reduce this time and improve the patient experience by making them feel more comfortable.

The scanner is equipped with a wide detector that provides up to 64 slices, enabling quicker CT scanning. Scans can be run with just a few inputs and automated, zero-click post-processing makes operation efficient and consistent. It also uses a stellar detector to integrate circuit boards connected to the CT detector module to ensure less noise in images.

Tin filter technology helps reduce radiation exposure among patients by sliding a mechanical tin shield in front of the X-ray source to cut out low energy X-ray photons.

The combination of the tin filter technology along with the stellar detector and SAFIRE iterative reconstruction enables SOMATOM go.Up to provide one of the lowest radiation doses achievable for a CT of its class.

SOMATOM go.Up enables physicians to feel more comfortable conducting exams through the addition of a standardized workflow for reducing variations and the production of more consistent, profound clinical results at a lower cost of ownership.

“What the GO technology does is that it creates more consistency through a very easy user interface, a very nice guided workflow that will bring everybody up to an equal level in terms of exam consistency, because we automate a great deal of what the technologist actually has to do,” Palacio said. “In terms of the manual and time consuming steps, we can automate all of those so the tech doesn’t have to waste time doing routine tasks. They can spend all of their time with their patients.”

The scanner was FDA cleared this spring and is CE marked.

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