January 8, 2018 — EchoPixel showcased the latest version of True 3D, its interactive, mixed reality software solution at ...

Women with higher body mass index (BMI) face an increased risk of not detecting their breast tumor until it has become large, according to a study presented at the 2017 annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago in November. Researchers said the findings suggest that women with higher BMI may need shorter intervals between mammography screening exams.

Although targeted therapies have produced dramatic advances in the ability to control some types of advanced lung cancer, growth of the disease in the brain remains a major problem. Radiation is often used to treat deposits in the brain, but the best technique to deliver radiation can be controversial. Whole-brain radiation therapy, as its name suggest, treats the entire brain but can be associated with notable cognitive side effects. Another strategy, radiosurgery, directs highly-focused radiation only to the sites of metastasis, largely sparing the normal brain.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the final version of the guidance, “Technical Considerations for Additive Manufactured Medical Devices." Additive manufacturing (AM), the broad category of manufacturing encompassing 3-dimensional (3-D) printing, is an emerging technology. This guidance is not intended to introduce new policy, but rather outlines the Agency’s current thinking about the technical aspects associated with AM processes, and provides manufacturers with recommendations for device design, manufacturing and testing considerations for use when developing devices that include at least one additively manufactured component or additively fabricated step.

Philips and Arizona-based Banner Health recently announced they have extended their multi-year partnership to include adoption of Philips' PerformanceBridge Practice, helping Banner to accelerate its clinical transformation in radiology and further deliver on its goal of improving care for patients. PerformanceBridge Practice is a part of the Philips PerformanceBridge portfolio, a suite of operational performance improvement software and services that assist radiology departments in enhancing productivity, improving the patient and staff experience, while delivering better value-based care. Philips and Banner will work collaboratively to pinpoint improvement opportunities, and a dedicated Philips Solution Advisor will help Banner to develop solutions that address areas for improvement. Banner will roll out PerformanceBridge Practice in all 28 of its radiology departments in a two-phased approach, starting with their 16 Arizona and academic sites, then expanding to its 12 radiology departments in five other states.

Seno Medical Instruments Inc. (Seno Medical) recently reported data from their clinical study demonstrating that its Imagio opto-acoustic (OA) breast imaging system achieved significant differentiation among prognostic subtypes of breast cancer (PSBC). These prognostic subtypes provide important information about the genes that each patient's cancer expresses. The data were presented during a poster presentation at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Dec. 5-9 in San Antonio, Texas.

IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A.) announced in November the acceptance and beam model validation of the first Varian Halcyon machine in Europe to go clinical, at the hospital UZ Leuven in Belgium, using IBA Dosimetry’s Blue Phantom water phantom system.