Low Dose Road Show

 

Canon Medical Systems recently held a study day on the company’s CT scanners from a physicist’s perspective, at three separate venues in the UK: Slough, Manchester and Glasgow.

 

Building on the success of its low dose road shows, which are run by Canon’s CT applications team and aimed predominantly at clinical radiographers, the recent study days were tailored for physicists working with Canon CT scanners. Delegates were given an overview of Canon’s equipment and introduced in more detail to how the technologies function, including a practical demonstration of the software in action. The emphasis was on how the technologies influence image quality and dose, providing delegates with the information to help optimisation in the clinical environment.

 

The programme opened with a CT review, covering Canon’s detector technology, scanner aperture, detector technology and dose efficiency including a comparison between helical and volume scanning.

 

Noise reduction and reconstruction methods and how they work, including AIDR and the latest model-based iterative reconstruction FIRST, were explained, as well as Canon’s metal artefact reduction software, SEMAR. Wedge filter design, fields-of-view and resolution including what it is and what it affects were also discussed.

 

Automatic exposure control was explained, including how Canon’s SUREExposure works, how it adapts to individual patient size and what exposure parameters affect each other when using SUREExposure and how they affect patient dose.

 

All these topics were presented by Dr. Roy Irwan, Science and Product Manager CT at Canon Medical Systems Europe and Deputy Chair HERCA-COCIR TF*. Dr. Irwan concluded with a presentation looking at the IEC regulations covering how dose must be displayed and the changes over time. The presentation also introduced delegates to HERCA (Heads of the European Radiological Protection Competent Authorities, and the commitments from COCIR regarding standardised benchmarking of CT systems, implementation of dose reduction methods in CT, dose management and reporting, and provision of specific training curricula.

 

Mr. David Platten, Medical Physicist at Northampton General Hospital gave a presentation on the 16th COMARE** report, (IR(ME)R,*** which covered the seven recommendations from COMARE and how they help address IR(ME)R and optimisation in dose, including personal experience in his own clinical environment and the importance of medical physicists, radiographers, radiologists and manufacturers working together to obtain the best clinical use of CT scanners.

 

Mark Condron, Senior CT Applications Specialist and Heather Dring, CT Applications Specialist at Canon Medical Systems ran a session on application of technology in clinical practice. This comprised an introduction to the user interface, plus a short demonstration to illustrate the differences between software versions, and slides on dose notification, dose alert and dose reports.   It also included a practical session, using a demonstration system to show, amongst other topics, how the interface works, the effect of different parameters on dose, different scan modes and the anatomy of a protocol.

 

Over 75 delegates attended over the three days, mainly medical physicists. The event was free for Canon customers and those physicists responsible for Canon CT systems. The feedback was excellent, with comments ranging from “extremely good coverage of physics on application of image quality and reconstructive software”; “very well targeted to the audience”, to “very helpful Canon representatives and handy networking opportunities.” Another delegate stated “it was a very good idea to run this course.  Well presented and informative day, I would be very happy to attend a similar event, if you run one again.”  “It was a useful study day; plenty of information, which will aid our upcoming testing on the new scanners.    Thank you for inviting us.”

 

Photo: Group Photo: Delegates at the Glasgow venue

*HERCA-COCIR TF

Heads of the European Radiological Protection Competent Authorities

European Coordination Committee of the Radiological Electromedical Healthcare IT Industry

TF – Task Force

 

**COMARE – Committee on Medial Aspects of Radiation in the Environment

 

***IR(ME)R – Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations

 

 

Canon Medical Systems has a carbon-zero project in place. We have calculated the carbon footprint for each of our products to include manufacturing, shipping, delivery and average hospital energy used for the standard lifetime of the equipment as follows:

CT equates to 12 stoves and 48,365 litres of water

Japan Green Ultrasound

 

The Japan Medical Centre, a private healthcare facility based at Throgmorton Avenue, London, recently acquired a Canon Xario 200 ultrasound system for general abdominal, vascular and MSK scanning.

 

Dr. Yoshihiro Takaya, Clinical Director comments, “The new scanner is easy-to-use with excellent image quality.  We have enjoyed stress-free imaging with a Canon Nemio scanner for many years and appreciate its stability and compactness. On the Xario 200 we particularly like the QuickScan software, which enables automatic optimisation of image quality, and also the elastography package, which helps us to evaluate a solid component effectively. Dr. Takaya adds, “We also found Canon’s after-sales support to be particularly helpful and efficient.”

 

Small, smart and simple, Canon’s Xario 200 comes with outstanding image quality and superior workflow in an easy-to-handle, compact scanner, which includes lightweight, transducers covering a large variety of clinical applications as well as a fully customisable console and a large colour touch command screen. The large 19 inch high-resolution monitor has a fully articulating monitor arm, and ergonomic handgrip, enabling optimised positioning in every challenging environment. Xario’s monitor facilitates full screen mode for increased visibility of the smallest detail. In addition, it is equipped with details such as smart transducer cable management, a standby function to allow quick shutdown and startup in mobile situations and, during probe changes, an illuminated transducer bay area.

 

The Xario 200 has been engineered to enhance efficiency, increase throughput and boost productivity. Canon’s exclusive iStyle+ productivity suite simplifies procedures and accelerates workflow with a set of automation tools. The customisable user interface and touch screen display, providing one-button access to major imaging modes and functions, reduces operator fatigue. At the touch of a button, exam times are reduced using the fully automated Quick Start menu to optimise image quality and colour flow for specific targets, and greater exam consistency can be achieved by the use of Quick Scan to optimise image quality. In addition, workflow can be automated and exams standardised using the Quick Assist Protocols featuring a one-click operation.

 

 

Photo:

Shown here (left to right) Kae Kikukawa, Head Nurse; Dr. Yoshihiro Takaya, Clinical Director; Yoshie Sekita, Clinical Assistant; Dr. Katsunori Ishida and Jane Hanford, Clinical Applications Specialist, Ultrasound, Canon Medical Systems

 

Canon Medical Systems has a carbon-zero project in place.  We have calculated the carbon footprint for each of our products to include manufacturing, shipping, delivery and average hospital energy used for the standard lifetime of the equipment as follows:

Ultrasound equates to 1 stove and 3,415 litres of water