New website launched: Doctors Helping Doctors Transform Healthcare

A new website has been launched called Doctors helping doctors transform healthcare. The authors of the website believe that health IT can and should be used to make care better, safer, and more value-laden. The website was started by a couple of pioneers on health IT and Meaningful use to help guide other doctors to find their way in the health IT jungle to put the health IT to the use for better healthcare.

Just launched, the site already contains a load of blog entries, movies, etc concerning topics like EHR Benefits, Meaningful Use, and Transforming Care.

Free on-line display calibration tool by Qubyx

On their website, Qubyx claims that too much is being paid for so-called "medical displays". They claim that any premium LCD display can be calibrated to meet the highest medical standards with an image quality that matches or even surpasses the most overpriced displays on the market.


To demonstrate this claim, they introduced a free webased calibration tool called Display Test. Display Test is easily accessible anywhere, free of charge, fast to use, and does not require a measurement device, according to the company. It measures luminance reproduction accuracy of a display based on randomly generated test combinations of letters and numbers displayed with varying luminance that have to be repeated by the user. By doing this, the just noticable differences are recorded.
To receive the test results, an e-mail address has to be provided, also enabling to setup a date for the next scheduled test.

RSNA: Putting patients in charge of image sharing makes for better care

A discussion I raised earlier on this Blog (here) is the fact that it would be well feasible to make patients responsible for their own data and remove the data sharing problem from the list of hospital IT. In the US, pilots are running to assess the possibilities of having the patient share his or her own data. One of the pilots is supported by the RSNA and mentioned here.

Check out the story on this topic on Health Imaging:
RSNA: Putting patients in charge of image sharing makes for better care

RSNA: Dedicated 3D labs offer many benefits

The production of 3D images using an on-site 3D lab, especially in larger healthcare institutions is a must according to Bradley J. Erickson, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
He states that 3D imaging is of growing importance in radiology especially in the multi-disciplinary communication and therefore a dedicated 3D lab should be established to achieve, among others:

• Higher standardization: With an on-site lab, it’s easier to get the same set of views for the studies that are performed.
• Single point of contact: A referring physician only has one place to call if there’s a question about an image. If there’s no lab, the radiologist will still get a call and that could impact workflow.
• Enhanced teamwork: 3D labs can act as a uniting force in an enterprise. Since the systems are expensive, there would likely be one central resource pushing departments to work together.
• Administrative buy-in: Since the lab would be an investment, COOs, CIOs and other decision makers who go with an on-site model will be on board from the start, and departments won’t likely have to worry about having the carpet dragged out from beneath the project later on.

Erickson also said that a 3D lab shouldn’t be considered a major money-maker, but departments should be in the black.

Read more about this topic in the Health Imaging report on RSNA: Dedicated 3D labs offer many benefits.

RSNA: CT Colonoscopy running on an iPad

Researchers from the University of Pisa, Italy presented on their work on CT Colonoscopy using an iPad running OsiriX HD. They compared the image quality and time to read on both the iPad and an iMac desktop computer also running OsiriX in a retrospective sudy of 23 CT Colonoscopy exams. According to their results, all lesions detected on the iMac were also identified on the iPad and their segmentation was correctly assessed in all cases. The downside of the iPad is in the fact that the evaluation was more time-consuming on the iPad.
The iPad 2 will not substitute for standalone workstations, because they have large displays and multiple image processing tools, among other advantages, according to Neri, whereas the iPad’s advantage is its portability. Nevertheless, the iPad 2 may be used for discussions of cases in multidisciplinary sessions. More about this presentation can be found on HealthImaging.

RSNA: Philips introduces digital MRI scanner

The digital MRI scanner introduced by Philips at the RSNA already received the Action Award of the High Tech Systems Platform in the Netherlands. The first system is installed at the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Philips claims that with this novel MRI it is possible to scan faster and more accurate. According to Philips, the signal to noise ratio is improved up to 40% and the scantime is reduced with 30%.

Haptic controlsystem wins Tata Steel Prize

A new haptic control system designed by Oscar van de Ven has won the Tata Steel Prize on November 23, 2011 in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The new haptic control system was designed as a mastersproject at the Technical University of Delft. The haptic feedback in this new system is improved to achieve faster and more accurate interaction. Initiallym the system was designed for production tasks, but the inventor believes that in due time the same technology can be used in medical applications.

TED: Visualizing the Medical Data Explosion

To see a very illustrative presentation on the medical data explosion that was caused by the introduction and constant improvement of Computed Tomography visit TED and watch the talk by Anders Ynnerman called 'Visualizing the medical data explosion'

Anders Ynnerman especially focusses on visualization of full body CT scand for evaluation and workup of virtual autopsies. To perform this task he also shows the virtual autopsy table they developed.

RSNA: Siemens shows prototype system of kinect based interaction

At the RSNA, Siemens has demonstrated a novel prototype for interaction with medical imaging data in, for example, the operating theater.

Based on the Microsoft Kinect capabilities, Siemens has demonstrated a free hand interaction with the ability to interact with the data without the need of any input devices other that your own hands. Intentions are to develop this prototype further to also include speech, thus providing an easy and versatile 3D visualization environment in the operating theater.

RSNA: Two handed 3D manipulation from Digital ArtForms

At RSNA Digital ArtForms is demonstrating a novel way to interact with radiological data called iMedic3D. This system utilizes two controllers based on magnetic tracking that are specifically designed for this task.

The way of interaction with the data is very intuitive and easy to learn. After a short introduction one can easily manipulate both 2D and 3D data. Exploration of the data utilizes novel ways of performing segmentation and window/level setting using the same two controllers.

Other than the systems that are using devices like the kinect, this system is more versatile because of the availability of 4 buttons on each manipulator.

For more information visit the website of DigitalArtForms