by
Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | November 22, 2016
From the November 2016 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Carestream Health
The company expanded its premium category of radiography products with the DRX-Evolution Plus digital X-ray room, which Sarah Verna, Carestream’s worldwide marketing manager for X-ray solutions, says builds on its previous release, the DRX-Evolution. “We really listened to our customers about what the next generation of room design needed to be,” Verna says.
The DRX-Evolution Plus has a table with a higher weight capacity, accommodating patients up to 705 pounds, and enhanced pediatric capabilities, including a table that adjusts low enough for small children, as well as a new tube column designed to reach feet and ankles more easily. The new room also has the capability to eventually accommodate advanced applications under development at Carestream, such as dual-energy radiography and tomosynthesis.
SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital in Lake Saint Louis, Missouri, replaced a 15-year-old radiography room with a DRX-Evolution Plus last November, after using Carestream’s portable X-ray units. Jamie Rapp, the hospital’s leader of diagnostic imaging, says the technologists like the ability to transfer Carestream’s digital detectors between the portable units and the room. They also use the room’s long-bone image capture and stitching technology. “Long-length imaging is fast and very simple for the technologist, compared to the old way of doing it,” Rapp says. “You don’t need a separate room, and stitching the separate images together is handled by the software.”
Carestream’s large format DRX Plus 4343 detector, which is 17 inches by 17 inches, is ideal for imaging on a stretcher and for larger patients, Rapp says. “The idea behind using this is that we have to do more with less, and our patients are getting heavier,” Rapp says. Carestream also released the DRX-Excel Plus radiography/fluoroscopy (R/F) system, which is the company’s first move into fluoroscopy. “Fluoroscopy is a need within Europe and we see the demand increasing within the U.S.,” Verna said. “But it’s very expensive to have a standalone fluoroscopy room that may not be utilized seven days a week. Combining fluoroscopy with general radiography makes sense since a facility can easily leverage the fluoro room for general X-ray and achieve maximum utilization while reducing patient wait times. It’s really improving the overall investment for the facility that’s using it.”
Carestream also expanded its detector portfolio in 2016. Its large-format DRX Plus 4343 is available with gadolinium (GOS) or cesium (CsI) scintillators, for use with Carestream’s DRX-Evolution Plus, DRX-Excel and DRX-Ascend systems, as well as the DRXRevolution Mobile X–ray system. Verna says the larger wireless detector is ideal for patients in the ICU who need daily chest X-rays. In addition, Carestream released its DRX Core family of detectors for radiology customers who require high-quality imaging, but need a detector that is affordable, Verna says.
