From the January/February 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


“There wasn’t a lot of handoff of paperwork and handoff of cassettes,” Grady says. “Because it was digital, it really cut down on errors.”

The technology was also used in the OR to guide surgeons, and some patients had to return to the OR multiple times.


Mobile is a pretty relative term when it comes to X-ray, with portable systems ranging from relatively lightweight briefcases to drivable machines, and OEMs have been adapting technology to varied uses and situations with faster previews and smaller detectors, while small startups are hoping new technology will be a game changer.

Portable X-ray also came in handy during a recent natural disaster. When Superstorm Sandy hit the New Jersey coast in October 2012, Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J., deployed its Mobile Satellite Emergency Department to support other hospitals in several locations that had been affected by flooding and high winds and were inundated with patients.

The two mobile emergency rooms -- each a 43-foot box truck with expandable sides and seven critical care beds -- are equipped with a mobile X-ray unit, one with a Siemens Mobilett XP Hybrid, an older model that uses analog film cassettes, and the other with the newer Mobilett XP Digital. The X-rays can be viewed in the vehicle or sent wirelessly to radiologists at other facilities.

During and after Sandy, the mobile units were used mostly to examine people who had been injured by falling debris, twisted their ankles or had infected wounds.

“As we saw in (Hurricane) Katrina, these types of deployments turn into emergency triage,” says Dr. Joseph Feldman, chairman of emergency services at Hackensack UMC.

Feldman says the machines seem to work very well in the mobile set-up.

“It transports well,” Feldman says. “It doesn’t get damaged during transport.”

Joe D’Antonio, U.S. product manager for portable X-ray systems at Siemens Healthcare, says the company’s Mobilett line, which was updated in late 2011 with the Mira, has been used in all kinds of settings. There has even been interest from cruise lines. The 860-pound Mira has the option of running on battery as well as mains power, and techs can disengage the drive system and push the unit manually, even if the battery hasn’t been charged.

“You never want to get into a situation in a trauma event when you’re ready to go and find out the X-ray doesn’t have any power,” D’Antonio says. “While not common, it has happened to some X-ray techs.”

Making improvements
Portable DR manufacturers are looking to enhanced visualization of anatomy as a key way to improve their product line. Carestream currently offers supplementary images containing algorithmic adjustments of the original X-ray image that can enhance visualization of pneumothorax and soft tissue in the chest as well as tube and PICC lines, all common reasons for portable exams.

January/February 2014 Magazine

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