From the March 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


New on the market
For those looking for the newest equipment, there are some exciting new options. Siemens received FDA approval last March for its Cios Alpha, which has a flat-panel detector with a power output of 25 kilowatts, which the company says allows for high-resolution, high-quality images. It also has a field-of-view up to 25 percent larger than conventional C-arms, according to the company, covering more anatomy without repositioning. Lisa Reid, clinical product manager for Siemens Healthcare, says the company sees the Cios Alpha moving into vascular imaging.

“It’s a lot easier if you can position the C-arm once and see everything you need to see instead of constantly making adjustments,” Reid says.
In November of last year, Philips received 510(k) clearance for its Veradius Unity mobile C-arm with a flat detector, and the company is focusing on using the product to improve interaction between surgeons and the nurse or X-ray technologist operating the C-arm, who each have a different reference point.

Michiel Heijnen, product manager for the Veradius Mobile C-arm, says they created a tablet-like user interface that only requires a finger to position the shutter and cover parts of the anatomy that are not in the region of interest, instead of having one button to rotate the shutter clockwise, another to rotate it counterclockwise and two others for inward and outward movements.

Philips also added ClearGuide, which provides a set of numbers — 3, 6, 9 and 12, like those on a clock — for positioning and repositioning, instead of right and left, which can be different for the surgeon and C-arm operator. “The physician can look at his clinical image and say ‘My area of interest is at 3’ and the operator can orient to the number,” Heijnen says. “You just say, ‘Rotate orange towards 3, or move pink towards 12, which makes it very easy.”

A white paper that Philips published noted that during user tests of the Veradius Unity by 15 doctors and 15 C-arm operators who were non-Philips users, there were 45 percent fewer movements in the wrong direction during positioning and 45 percent less miscommunication for easier positioning.

The digital capabilities also allow physicians to draw on the screen with a stylus instead of using a marker. With Position Memory, the user can store up to three previous positions — returning the C-arm to an exact position to check placement of a pedicle screw during spinal surgery — and recall it to speed up repositioning. The user tests found there was 94 percent first-timeright repositioning.

March 2015 Magazine

Read more stories from the March 2015 issue

Medical Devices Homepage