From November 25-30, imaging professionals from around the world will convene at Chicago’s vast McCormick Place for the 104th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting for the Radiological Society of North America. This year, roughly 680 vendors, to date, are slated to exhibit their latest and greatest products. Below are some of the top technologies that will be on display.

Breast Imaging

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Senographe Pristina

GE Healthcare, Waukesha, Wis., will exhibit the Senographe Pristina mammography system. The device, which was designed to increase patient comfort, features armrests that position women to relax, rather than tense up during the compression and image acquisition process. The system also offers patients the option to use Pristina Dueta, a patient-assisted compression device. What’s more, the device delivers advanced diagnostic accuracy at the same dose as a 2D mammography exam, the lowest dose of all FDA-approved 3D mammography systems.

Hologic, Marlborough, Mass., will showcase its 3Dimensions mammography system. A high-resolution breast tomosynthesis system, 3Dimensions changes the patient experience by improving comfort without sacrificing image quality, exam time, dose or workflow.

Hologic will also exhibit its Clarity HD high-resolution 3D imaging technology, which provides high-resolution 3D images to accelerate screening and analysis, with the same 70-micron pixel size as full-field digital mammography. Specifically, Clarity HD technology’s advanced detector and 3D imaging algorithm work together to deliver advanced 3D images, regardless of breast size or density, with two times the tomosynthesis resolution of the standard 3D Mammography exam.

CR/DR

GE Healthcare will demonstrate its fixed digital radiographic system, the Discovery XR656 HD, which is designed to help eliminate unnecessary x-ray image adjustments and repeated exams. Further, FlashPad HD technology captures images with up to four times higher definition, which, combined with Helix image processing, allows the x-ray workflow to be conducted precisely and with fluid automation. What’s more, the FlashPad HD detectors provide strong anatomical detail at low dose while the AutoRAD Suite allows accurate and fast x-ray image stitching with Auto Image Paste for long-bone and spine x-ray exams.

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FDR AQRO

Fujifilm Medical Systems USA, Stamford, Conn., will showcase FDR AQRO, a digital x-ray system that generates high-resolution images with low patient dose in a variety of point-of-care settings, all within a lightweight mini mobile cart. The system combines the sensitivity of Fujifilm’s D-EVO II detectors with image processing upgrades to generate high-resolution images at a low dose. The company will also highlight its FDR Go PLUS portable digital x-ray system, which offers a new, retractable column with a low park position. The low profile helps safely navigate tight spaces, such as emergency rooms, operating rooms and NICUs.

CT

Aquilion Precision

Aquilion Precision

Melville, N.Y.-based Canon Medical will showcase the company’s newly U.S. FDA-cleared Aquilion Precision, which delivers twice the resolution of conventional CT systems. In fact, the system can resolve anatomy as small as 150 microns and 50 lp/cm. What’s more, the Aquilion Precision CT system features detector channels that are only 0.25 mm thick. This, combined with improvements in scintillator quantum efficiency, detector circuitry, and other data acquisition system components, results in a dose-efficient detector with ultra-high resolution capabilities.

Canon Medical will also exhibit the Aquilion ONE/Genesis Edition, which can image the entire brain with a single 640-slice rotation. Further, the system’s Neuro ONE Protocol allows the acquisition of multiple low-dose volume scans of the entire brain during contrast infusion to provide whole-brain perfusion and whole-brain dynamic vascular analysis in one exam.

Carestream, Rochester, N.Y., will exhibit its OnSight 3D Extremity System, which uses cone-beam CT technology to capture high-quality, low-dose images of upper and lower extremities, including weight-bearing exams. What’s more, the system provides high-resolution 3D images that can help reveal subtle or occult fractures.

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Scenaria View

Hitachi Healthcare Americas, Twinsburg, Ohio, will introduce the Scenaria View 128-slice CT with the unique lateral shifting table and an 80-cm-wide bore. What’s notable about the Scenaria View is that it can accommodate patients weighing up to 550 pounds, and its wide range of clinical applications promotes versatility.

Philips, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, will showcase the latest configuration of its spectral detector-based CT scanner, IQon Elite. With this device, faster reconstruction speeds and improved visualization not only help to enhance diagnostic confidence, but also enable healthcare facilities to expand patient volumes. Also, a new radiation therapy planning couch and bariatric table top allow larger patients to be scanned with increased positioning controls, providing greater clinical breadth.

Image Management Solutions

Carestream Clinical Collaboration Platform - woman doc with patient

Vue Clinical Collaboration Platform

Carestream will showcase its Vue Clinical Collaboration Platform, an enterprise imaging technology that allows providers to consolidate, manage, and share images and data across the enterprise. It is a modular, multi-site, multi-domain technology that is designed to make patient images and data accessible to all stakeholders in the continuum of care, from referring physicians to specialists, IT professionals, business administrators, and patients. Further, the Vue Clinical Collaboration Platform accommodates all major clinical data formats and communication protocols to streamline the deployment of applications and sharing of resources.

Fujifilm Medical Systems USA will exhibit three enterprise imaging solutions. The first, the Synapse 5 PACS, provides sub-second, on-demand access to large datasets and the ability to interact with such data. Further, the company’s second system on display, Synapse 3D, is designed for use across multiple specialties—radiology, cardiology, surgery, and more—and enables the access of 3D rendered images. Finally, with Fujifilm’s patented Synapse VNA (vendor-neutral archive) enables healthcare organizations to optimize workflow efficiencies and securely manage all departmental data.

Hitachi Healthcare Americas will unveil its latest acquisition, the VidiStar Image Management and Analytics platform. VidiStar combines structured reporting with analytics and numerous workflow features to provide facilities with the ability to identify critical values in patient reports and ensure critical results aren’t missed.

Hologic will exhibit its SecurView DX diagnostic workstations, which offer flexible, interactive, and comprehensive diagnostic tools—tools that help imaging professionals to work more efficiently and increase case throughput. The workstations provide optimal viewing and analysis for tomosynthesis data sets.

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AeroRemote Insights

Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc., Wayne, N.J., will showcase AeroRemote Insights, a cloud-based analytics solution that delivers detailed information on asset utilization, department workflow and efficiency, system health and more. Specifically, AeroRemote Insights provides daily performance data in visual formats that managers can utilize to optimize department performance and manage digital radiography assets. This new service also enables managers to act on urgent situations immediately and respond to usage trends intelligently.

Molecular Imaging

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Vereos

Philips will exhibit Vereos, a fully digital PET/CT system that delivers improved detectability of small lesions. The device, which features Philips’ Digital Photon Counting technology, also provides quantification at half the PET dose and lesion detectability in one-tenth of the time. When used with Ambient Experience, Philips’ clinical environmental design, patients can experience a calmer imaging process while staff can experience a streamlined workflow.

Siemens Heathineers, Malvern, Pa., will exhibit the Biograph Vision PET/CT system, which features detector technology based on silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) rather than photomultiplier tubes, enabling reduction of the detector’s lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) crystal elements for higher spatial resolution. Utilizing these small LSO crystals and covering 100% of the area of the scintillator array with SiPMs, the system delivers fast time-of-flight, with a temporal resolution of 214 picoseconds, and a sensitivity at 100 cps/kBq. For these reasons, the system helps reduce scan time by a factor of 3.9, improving patient throughput as well as reducing patient radiation exposure and tracer cost.

MRI

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Vantage Galan

Canon Medical will demonstrate the Vantage Galan 3T system, which features a series of new software enhancements to streamline clinician workflow. With such enhancements, clinicians will be able to perform one-click, auto-alignment exams for various parts of the anatomy, such as the brain, knee, and heart, in addition to keeping patients at ease with improved free-breathing techniques. At RSNA, Canon Medical will also launch the Vantage Orian MR system (pending 510k clearance), which is designed to boost productivity, enhance patient comfort, and deliver diagnostic clinical confidence to users and patients.

GE Healthcare will exhibit SIGNA Premier, a new wide-bore 3.0T MRI system, which delivers a new level of clinical performance with additional research-focused capabilities, especially for neurology and oncology research. SIGNA Premier features: GE Healthcare’s latest, short-bore, 3.0T superconductive magnet; a powerful gradient system; and a new, digital radiofrequency transmit-and-receive architecture. Clinical and research applications benefit from this high-performance hardware, as well as machine learning software that includes cloud analytics. SIGNA Premier is powered by SuperG gradient coil technology, which is designed to deliver the performance of a research-class 60 cm MRI system in a 70 cm bore.

Philips will showcase the Ingenia Ambition X MRI system, which combines the company’s BlueSeal magnet with Compressed SENSE technology to help reduce downtime, enable single-operator workflow, and speed up exam times by up to 50%. The scanner also enables helium-free operations, reducing the chance of potentially lengthy and costly disruptions, and preventing dependency on a commodity with an unpredictable supply. Plus, the fully sealed system does not require a vent pipe and is roughly 900kg lighter than its predecessor, reducing the siting challenges presented by conventional magnets and lowering construction costs.

Ultrasound

Canon Medical will demonstrate its Aplio i-series, which encompasses the Aplio i600, Aplio i700, Aplio i800 and Aplio i900 ultrasound systems. All systems include iPerformance technologies, which deliver processing power and help healthcare providers to see more. Specifically, a new beam-forming technology, iBeam, optimizes efficiency of the beam, increasing spatial resolution and contrast. Imaging professionals can also leverage the company’s high-frequency transducer (24 MHz), which delivers high clinical detail and is especially useful when performing musculoskeletal imaging and small parts examinations.

Fujifilm will highlight a handful of ultrasound systems. In addition to the SonoSite SII—an ultrasound system featuring Armored Cable Technology—the company will exhibit the SonoSite Edge II ultrasound system. The latter device features an intuitive interface to streamline access to frequently used functions, such as gain, and a wide-angle display with an anti-reflection coating for minimal adjustments during viewing.

The company will also showcase its SonoSite X-Porte ultrasound system—a potable device with touchscreen controls and a customizable interface, which offers more than 80 real-time educational visual guides and tutorials. Also, X-Porte’s proprietary high-definition imaging technology reduces artifact clutter and enhances contrast resolution.

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LOGIQ E10

GE Healthcare will exhibit the LOGIQ E10 ultrasound system, which integrates artificial intelligence technology, cloud connectivity, and advanced algorithms to acquire and reconstruct data faster than ever before. Moreover, the cSound Architecture eliminates the need for focal zones and the new Photo Assistant App enables users to photograph relevant anatomy and include the photos with the clinical images sent to the radiologist.

Another tool allows users to manipulate the ultrasound’s settings with a remote-control app on a tablet or smart phone. Providing a new way for clinicians to connect with their colleagues and patients, Tricefy from Trice Imaging adds cloud-based image sharing, diagnostic collaboration, remote viewing, archiving, and electronic health record integration.

Hitachi will introduce the latest addition to the Arietta product line, Arietta 65, a mid-range ultrasound system suitable for radiology facilities. Also available for demonstration at this year’s RSNA annual meeting is the Sofia 3D Breast ultrasound system and the Arietta 850 premium ultrasound with capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer technology. At presstime, Arietta 65 is pending 510k clearance.

Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc. will showcase the new Sonimage MX1 portable ultrasound system, which delivers the portability that physicians need to make a confident diagnosis at the point of care. Designed for musculoskeletal, anesthesia, and pain management exams, the Sonimage MX1 system provides high-resolution image quality and streamlined workflow with a touchscreen interface. Further, multiple imaging parameters, such as frequency, focus, and compounding, can be changed automatically by just adjusting the depth. The result of these customized settings is advanced image quality and resolution, enabling physicians to provide therapeutic needle guidance and monitor rehabilitation.

Philips will showcase the EPIQ Evolution 4.0 ultrasound platform, which offers solutions for breast assessment, liver assessment and small parts assessment. Also, the company’s EPIQ CVx provides cardiologists with applications for diagnostic, pediatric and interventional echocardiography, bringing together advanced image quality, quantification and intelligence. Built on the EPIQ ultrasound platform, EPIQ CVx is specifically designed to increase diagnostic confidence and simplify workflow for clinicians, and reducing the need for repeat scans.

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ACUSON Juniper

Siemens Healthineers will debut the ACUSON Juniper and Sequoia ultrasound systems. The first system, the lightweight ACUSON Juniper, is suitable for use across a wide variety of clinical segments and is equipped with 16 transducers. It’s also customizable with advanced imaging applications for use in radiology and interventional radiology, urology, cardiovascular, orthopedic, and obstetrics/gynecological imaging. Moreover, the Sequoia, a general imaging ultrasound system, was developed in response to the imaging of different-sized patients. In fact, with its new Deep Abdominal Transducer (DAX), high-powered architecture, and updates to elastography and contrast-enhanced ultrasound, the ACUSON Sequoia produces penetration up to 40cm.