A line from poet, physician, and clinical ethicist Laura Kolbe’s latest poem, “Buried Abecedary for Intensive Care.”

Given all of the RSNA-timed announcements, this week’s issues will be more focused on the business and technology side of imaging. We’ll go back to normal next week.

Imaging Wire Sponsors

Arterys  •  Bayer Radiology  •  Blackford Analysis  •  Canon Medical Systems  •  Fujifilm Healthcare  •  GE Healthcare  •  Nanox.AI  •  Novarad  •  Nuance  •  Riverain Technologies  •  Siemens Healthineers  •  United Imaging

MR Scanners

Philips’ RSNA MRIs

After two straight solution-centric RSNAs, Philips’ RSNA 2021 booth will be headlined by a pair of new MR systems (plus some MR solutions) and a major focus on operational efficiency.

MR 5300 – The FDA-cleared MR 5300 (1.5T) is Philips’ second helium-free BlueSeal MR scanner, arriving three years after the Ingenia Ambition X, and launching with new AI-powered features intended to automate clinical and operational tasks. Philips also emphasized the image quality advantages of the MR 5300’s 55cm field-of-view and dStream Breeze coils.

MR 7700 – Philips’ forthcoming MR 7700 system (3T) is positioned for both clinical and research use, although its features and messaging largely emphasize its value to researchers. The MR 7700 boasts new multinuclear clinical capabilities, including diffusion imaging and advanced neuroscience sequences, while its XP gradients (65 mT/m) support neuroscience.

MR Workspace – Philips’ new MR Workspace is intended to support technologist productivity, providing a dashboard that automates the planning and execution of many routine scans and supports decision making by suggesting the most suitable Exam Card for each patient. MR Workspace will be included with all new and installed Philips MR scanners. 

Philips SmartSpeed – The SmartSpeed image reconstruction platform is designed to speed up image acquisition and enhance image quality, leveraging Philips’ Compressed SENSE acquisition technique and AI to reconstruct full images from under-sampled data, “while maintaining virtually equivalent image quality.”

The Takeaway – Philips’ MR lineup has been relatively quiet during the last few years, while its main MR competitors made some solid progress (particularly w/ reconstruction, operability, comfort, and low-helium tech). It seems like that won’t be the case at RSNA 2021.

uCT ATLAS Covers All

United Imaging’s uCT ATLAS ultra-premium CT scanner delivers imaging that covers it all. That means 16 cm whole organ coverage, enabling a non-contrast brain in a half-second with a single rotation. That also means whole-heart coverage combined with 0.25 second rotation speed, providing high-quality and low-dose images within one heartbeat.

Redefining Radiology at RSNA 2021

Check out the latest Imaging Wire Show featuring Bayer Radiology’s Rich Dewit, discussing how COVID has changed radiology, what to expect from RSNA 2021, and how Bayer is supporting imaging teams’ changing needs.

The Wire

• PCCT vs. DECT: UPenn researchers published the first photon-counting CT study we’ve seen so far, finding that Siemens Healthineers’ new NAEOTOM Alpha PCCT outperformed a dual-source dual-energy CT at low radiation dosage levels. Both scanners performed well across the study’s dosage range (CTDIvol 0.4 – 15.0 mGy), but the NAEOTOM Alpha reduced electronic background noise by between 60% and 74% at the lowest radiation exposures while maintaining reliable Hounsfield Units.

• Nuance Precision Imaging Network: Nuance kicked off RSNA with the launch of the Nuance Precision Imaging Network, an AI-powered cloud platform that delivers patient-specific imaging data and insights into existing clinical and administrative workflows (including PACS, VNA, and EHR systems). The Precision Imaging Network leverages Nuance’s PowerScribe and PowerShare platforms alongside partner AI solutions, providing data/insights to support diagnostic and therapeutic decisions, improve physician efficiency, and reduce overall healthcare costs.

• Inpatient MRI Second Reviews: After finding that inpatient MRI orders often created discharge delays when requested within 24 hours of patients’ estimated discharge date, New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell added a second order review step to ensure that these exams are necessary. During the first 9 months, the automated workflow flagged 618 inpatient MRI orders, 333 of which were reviewed by care teams. These order reviews resulted in 80 MR exams either being cancelled or transferred to outpatient imaging centers, eliminating 267 avoidable hospital days and $200k in hospital costs.

• Braid Health & Walmart Health: Braid Health announced a new partnership with Walmart, providing Walmart Health patients with real-time access to their diagnostic results through the Braid platform (primary care, dental, optometry, radiology, pathology). Braid will be integrated into Walmart’s Epic platform and launch across Walmart Health locations in early 2022.

• Subtle & Siemens: Subtle Medical’s SubtleMR DLIR software will be the first AI product integrated into Siemens Healthineers’ forthcoming OpenRecon interface, making SubtleMR available with all newer Siemens MRI scanners once OpenRecon gains FDA approval (targeting Q2/Q3 2022). OpenRecon enables the integration of third-party image reconstruction and post-processing solutions, eliminating additional export steps and making results directly available on the scanner console. This seems like a logical partnership for both sides, giving Siemens an answer to its MR competitors’ DLIR solutions and giving Subtle access to Siemens’ massive MR customer base.

• McKinsey Hospital Survey: A McKinsey survey of 100 hospitals found that October 2021 patient volumes surpassed 2019 levels, while rising ED visits and procedural volumes continued to strain health systems. Around 70% of respondents indicated that staffing challenges created additional backlogs (25% of delayed elective care still needs to be addressed), with the backlogs expected to grow further in 2022.

• Aidoc AI OS: After spending much of 2021 building out its AI partner portfolio, Aidoc officially launched its AI Operating System (AI OS), which allows providers to use multiple imaging AI applications within one unified system. Aidoc emphasized the AI OS’ breadth (Aidoc’s 7 AI apps + apps from 5 AI partners), how its unified architecture simplifies AI integration, and how AI OS streamlines usage by matching incoming scans with the most appropriate algorithm.

• CCTA’s DLIR Reduction: A new study out of Switzerland found that GE’s TrueFidelity deep-learning image reconstruction (DLIR) solution reduced coronary CTA radiation dosage by 43%, while maintaining image quality. The researchers reconstructed 50 normal dose CCTAs using Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction-Veo (ASiR-V) and used DLIR to reconstruct 50 low-dose scans from the same patients, finding that the two techniques had the same image noise (28 vs. 27 HU) and diagnostic performance.

• Siemens’ Mammography Solution FDAs: Siemens Healthineers announced the FDA 510(k) approval of its new Mammovista B.smart and Teamplay Mammo Dashboard solutions. Mammovista B.smart supports reading across multiple breast imaging modalities, and uses AI to highlight abnormalities and provide cancerous tissue confidence scores. The Teamplay Mammo Dashboard is the latest addition to Siemens’ Digital Health Platform, giving institutions an overview of their breast imaging KPIs (e.g. dose, compression, device utilization) and allowing them to identify workflow bottlenecks.

• Nigeria’s Radiographer Brain Drain: Nigeria is reportedly experiencing an imaging team brain drain, with at least five radiographers leaving to work in other countries every week. This radiographer exodus exacerbates an already difficult situation, given Nigeria’s massive radiographer shortage (2.5k staffed vs. 50k required) and limited education pipeline (9 Nigerian universities train radiographers).

• Canon’s Altivity AI Brand: Canon Medical unveiled its new AI innovation brand, Altivity, which encompasses all of Canon’s healthcare AI products and technologies, and underscores the high emphasis Canon Medical is placing on artificial intelligence.

• Saudi AI Perceptions: A study out of Saudi Arabia revealed that the country’s radiology professionals (n = 224 total, 40 radiologists) are generally open to AI, despite their limited exposure. Although the majority of respondents had never used AI or been formally educated on the technology (82% & 71%), most were very interested in receiving AI education, believe AI is clinically useful, and are willing to incorporate AI into their work (96% & 70% & 93%). Even with this openness, many were still concerned that AI would jeopardize their jobs (32%).

• QView & GE’s ABUS Integration: QView Medical announced an alliance with GE Healthcare that will make QView’s QVCAD breast cancer screening AI system available on GE’s Invenia ABUS 2.0 (Automated Breast Ultrasound). QVCAD previously connected to Invenia ABUS 2.0 through an external PC and server, and will now be available to clinicians directly through the Invenia ABUS Viewer.

• Nordson Enters Medical Imaging: Global technology conglomerate Nordson (7,500 employees, >30 industries) is expanding from industrial X-ray to medical X-ray, rolling out a new range of CMOS flat panel detectors that it will offer to medical imaging OEMs. Nordson is targeting the usual combination of low-dosage and high image quality, but it will also develop large format detectors, and is partnering with IBEX Innovations to jointly produce more advanced detectors. 

• Radiomics’ New Funding: Imaging AI startup Radiomics secured €6m in pre-series B funding that it will use to support ongoing projects, and expand its workforce, R&D pipeline, and geographic reach. Radiomics’ strategy focuses on building imaging AI tools that allow providers to plan and monitor cancer treatment (starting with lung cancer).

Solving AI’s Adoption Challenges

The flow of new AI applications makes it hard for radiology groups to determine which tools would help them and how IT teams can handle increased AI adoption. In this Blackford Analysis white paper, radiology and IT leaders from NYU and Canopy Partners share how a platform approach alongside a curated marketplace can help solve these challenges.

Non-Contrast 4D Flow Validated

This University of Chicago study detailed an Arterys-based non-contrast 4D-flow CMRI sequence that acquires multiple overlapping thin slabs, and could improve image quality, diagnostic accuracy, and aortic flow measurements compared to the non-contrast single-slab approach.

The Resource Wire

• There might be more “advanced” imaging modalities, but X-ray keeps growing and will be a mainstay modality for the foreseeable future. See the factors driving X-ray’s growth in this GE Healthcare report.

• Tune in to Canon’s State of AI Roundtable (Wednesday 12/1 8am Eastern) when a panel of AI experts will discuss the financial, technical, clinical, and regulatory considerations with today’s AI, and how AI’s future might look.

• When Birmingham Radiological Group-GV adopted Nuance PowerScribe One, the practice eliminated 60-75 minutes in daily reporting time and reduced calls to the radiology reading room by 80%. See how in this Nuance Case Study.

• This Riverain Technologies case study details how Duke University Medical Center integrated ClearRead CT into its chest CT workflows, reducing read times by 26% and improving nodule detection by 29%.

• Check out how Novarad’s enterprise imaging patient storyboard view gives specialists more and better information from across a hospital system to better care for their patients.

• How could photon-counting CT impact your patients? In this video, the Medical University of South Carolina, one of the first users of the NAEOTOM Alpha, talks about the potential to visualize small lesions and fine details for high diagnostic confidence in neurology, cardiology, oncology, and pulmonology. 

• Check out this Imaging Wire Show featuring Arterys’ Director of Product, Stephen Harrold, for a great conversation about the evolution of PACS and informatics, imaging’s AI and cloud convergence, and much more. 

• See why the time is right for imaging AI-enabled population health in this Hardian Health profile featuring Nanox AI’s Zohar Elhanani.

• Easy-to-use customizable templates, remote access, EMR integration. These are three of the five Cardiovascular Information Systems “must haves” detailed in this Fujifilm Healthcare blog.