Connected systems
On the back of a frenetic period during COVID-19, many healthcare providers have had limited time to focus on modernisation strategies for radiology services, especially as pent-up demand and staff shortages have put huge pressure on providers. Medical Imaging vendors at the show were at pains to position themselves as long-term collaborative partners, whether this be through their service offerings, ongoing training services, or strategic consulting support.

A key theme tied to this partnership approach was “connected systems”. One foundational facet of this was supporting the ongoing shift to remote servicing of modalities. Covid-19 had accelerated the number of servicing cases done remotely, with an estimated 40% of servicing performed remotely today. Additionally, software packages with analytics providing real-time monitoring of modality and staff performance across multiple sites were also on show, intended to help imaging service stakeholders better manage their fleets and ensure increasingly overstretched resources are deployed most effectively. Some solutions on show included predictive tools, helping imaging service-line managers to support operational planning and better react to peaks of demand, or to look to improve system optimisation by identifying patterns causing patient “no shows”. Commonly, these solutions are deployed alongside vendor consulting services and managed service contracts, embedding specialists from modality vendors within healthcare providers to support meeting specific performance or operational targets. This also helps vendors leverage this close relationship to broker new deals and tailor their offering to each provider.
Smarter workflows
AI continues to be integrated across the entire workflow, from examination preparation to acquisition, and in reconstruction and post-processing. While much has been debated over the role of AI in post-processing and image analysis, which was also on show in the dedicated AI showcase and forum, AI was also a headline at ECR in terms of supporting and improving imaging acquisition.

Noticeable demonstrations at ECR 2023 included AI being used to track patient breathing and movement within the bore or gantry itself, use of AI to reduce scatter in X-ray imaging, automation of patient positioning to provide consistent outcomes and deep learning reconstruction. AI is being used by modality vendors to improve the quality and speed of imaging services, reducing the need for rescans and improving the quality and safety of imaging (especially for scans requiring radiation dose or use of contrast agents). This addresses many of the challenges facing healthcare providers in terms of high-demand for services, but also shows that AI is increasingly being viewed by modality vendors as an important differentiator alongside the traditional “hardware-based” innovations.

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