CHICAGO -- Thales Group debuted its next-generation Pixium Portable 3543 DR with embedded patient identification technology at the RSNA annual meeting in Chicago.
“It allows you to scan the barcode and embed it with the image,” Vincent Marfaing, director of radiology at Thales, told HCB News. “When a hospital gets the image, it’s attached to the patient.”
This detector is specifically designed for retrofitting CR systems. Traditionally, a cassette needs to be taken to PACS after only one image is captured, but now a round of images can be acquired with the new detector before going to PACS, said Marfaing.
In the U.S., health care facilities will face a 7 percent cut to Medicare reimbursement starting next year if they are still using CR technology and a 10 percent cut if they don’t make the transition to DR by 2023. Thales believes this is where the Pixium Portable 3543 DR can fill a need.
“We believe the retrofit market is still a large market,” said Marfaing.
When making purchasing decisions, battery life is also an important consideration. Thales designed the Pixium Portable 3543 DR’s battery to last eight hours if an image is acquired every 90 seconds, which eliminates the need to replace or recharge it.
The detector was commercially launched in Europe on Saturday. It has not yet been submitted for FDA approval, but Thales is currently working on adapting it with a new software solution for the U.S. market and expects the product to be finished by March.
