Malvern, Pa. - Siemens Healthcare has announced the expansion of its Low-Dose Centers of Excellence program for computed tomography (CT). Four healthcare institutions now collaborate with Siemens in the development of best-in-class clinical processes and protocols that reduce patient CT radiation dose, benefit patient outcomes, and optimize clinical operations.

Low-Dose Centers of Excellence represent leading healthcare facilities that are pioneering radiation dose reduction in CT. Launched exclusively by Siemens in 2010, the CT Low-Dose Centers of Excellence program is the gold standard for academic-industry partnerships. Patient care is the core commitment of Siemens' CT Low-Dose Centers of Excellence program, and Siemens works with its luminary customers in divergent clinical settings to create best industry practices to continue development of this important mission and achieve best-in-class outcomes. Elkhart (Ind.) General Hospital, the most recent healthcare institution to have signed the Centers of Excellence framework agreement, joins Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis, Md.; Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, Richmond; and University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview.

"University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview continues to benefit from our ongoing collaboration with Siemens in the area of patient dose reduction, enabling us to reduce CT dose by more than 30 percent," said Uma S. Valeti, MD, FACC, associate professor of medicine and director of cardiovascular imaging. "Our collaboration with Siemens has allowed us to balance patient needs with access to cutting-edge technology and procedures to deliver optimal patient outcomes."

"The Siemens Centers of Excellence program is the original blueprint for developing collaborations for radiation dose reduction benchmarks, and Siemens is proud to partner with institutions on their journey of low-dose CT imaging," said Kulin Hemani, U.S. vice president of CT, Siemens Healthcare. "Our goal is to provide higher education to help all of our customers enhance workflow, provide positive patient outcomes, and benefit from our innovative dose reduction technology for years to come."

Siemens CT is the industry's recognized low-dose leader, according to the KLAS "CT 2011: Focused on Dose" report. Accordingly, Siemens applies its CARE - Combined Applications to Reduce Exposure - comprehensive approach to all areas of diagnostic and interventional imaging. Consistently introducing dose reduction innovations since 1994 and adhering to the CARE research and development philosophy, Siemens has continually integrated innovations into its CT scanners that significantly reduce radiation exposure in comparison to other systems on the market.

Care kV, a recent addition to Siemens' dose reduction portfolio, selects the correct tube voltage depending on the patient's anatomy and the organ to be imaged, with all other parameters automatically adjusted to suit the selected kV level. Care kV optimizes the contrast-to-noise ratio of the image and enables dose savings of up to 60 percent. Siemens' SAFIRE¹[<00B9>][<00B9>] (Sinogram Affirmed Iterative Reconstruction) software solution delivers significant dose reduction in a wide clinical spectrum, providing excellent image quality and improved workflow.

1 In clinical practice, the use of SAFIRE may reduce CT patient dose depending on the clinical task, patient size, anatomical location, and clinical practice. A consultation with a radiologist and a physicist should be made to determine the appropriate dose to obtain diagnostic image quality for the particular clinical task. The following test method was used to determine a 54 to 60% dose reduction when using the SAFIRE reconstruction software. Noise, CT numbers, homogeneity, low-contrast resolution, and high contrast resolution were assessed in a Gammex 438 phantom. Low dose data reconstructed with SAFIRE showed the same image quality compared to full dose data based on this test. Data on file.

Launched by Siemens Healthcare Sector in November 2011, Agenda 2013 is a two-year global initiative to further strengthen the Healthcare Sector's innovative power and competitiveness. Specific measures will be implemented in four fields of action: Innovation, Competitiveness, Regional Footprint, and People Development.

The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source - from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 51,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. In fiscal year 2011 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 12.5 billion euros and profit of around 1.3 billion euros. For further information please visit: www.siemens.com/healthcare.