Competition among vendors hawking advanced visualization tools heated up on the RSNA 2008 exhibit floor with offerings from standard-bearer Vital Images and newcomers Ziostation and FiatLux Imaging, as well as perennial rivals GE Healthcare, TeraRecon, and Visage Imaging.
Vital Images launched a webenabled suite of advanced applications ported from its workstation. Vitrea Web allows ViTAL Enterprise customers to run best-of-breed clinical applications from any PC connected to the Internet, according to the company.
It supports integration with PACS and electronic medical record offerings via a standard URL interface.
The technology, optimized for low-bandwidth connections, allows access from remote sites, such as a radiologist’s home office.
Ziostation unveiled a web extension of its thin-client 3D system at the company’s RSNA booth. Ziostation Web works with just about any web browser and requires no client software or plug-ins, according to the company. It offers 3D analysis and real-time collaboration tools. Original and saved images as well as reports can be shared by authorized users from a centralized source. The company last spring unveiled its thin-client product, noting that a web-enabled product was in the works. At this RSNA meeting, the company featured upgrades to the thin-client Ziostation system, including works-in-progress 4D CT brain perfusion and MR cardiac function analysis tools.
FiatLux leveraged advances in the video gaming industry to develop software for processing 3D medical images that’s made to order for tight budgets. With a license price under $3000, Visualize 3D is affordable for "anywhere, anytime" imaging on PC laptops and tablets, possibly even Palm computers, according to the company. RSNA newcomer FiatLux, which was founded only 18 months ago, exhibited the package at the 2008 meeting, demonstrating its ability to analyze CT and MR images by taking advantage of DirectX game programming technologies.
After two years of R&D, GE Healthcare released at RSNA 2008 a thin-client server to support 3D visualization on PCs. The company’s new Advantage Workstation Server allows access to and postprocessing of prior exams, according to the company. Its Smart Compression feature allows diagnostic review of full-fidelity static images.
TeraRecon framed its Aquarius- WEB viewer as the way to spread advanced visualization beyond the traditional bounds of healthcare practices—to referring physicians and into the homes of radiologists— where access is constrained by bandwidth.
The browser-based viewer uses JavaScript to deliver images through a URL. Images can be viewed on desktops, laptops, or even PDAs.
Visage Imaging "turbo-charged" PACS with the addition of advanced visualization tools. But rather than selling only to OEMs, the company continued its strategy of also selling directly to end users. The reason for the direct sales, however, is mostly to catch the eye of PACS companies, executives said.
Visage, a subsidiary of Mercury Computer Systems, is a long-time supplier to imaging OEMs of computing accelerators and other electronic components built into CT and MR scanners. About four years ago, the company began looking for ways to expand its reach in the medical imaging industry, choosing PACS and IT as the means to gain ground. Its thin-client Visage CS makes quick work of volumetric data sets, just as it allows access to the images across the enterprise and beyond, according to the company.
