Camtronics moves first cardiac cath archiving product to market

Archium offers media-independent storage

Analogic subsidiary Camtronics Medical Systems is breaking intothe archiving market with a new product designed to facilitateaccess to cardiac cath images regardless of the media on whichthey are stored. The product, called Archium Digital Archive System,received Food and Drug Administration 510(k) clearance in December.Camtronics, of Hartland, WI, made the first clinical installationsof the unit last month.

Archium is an on-line storage controller that acts as a fileserver for archived cardiac cath images. The system transfersacquired digital data directly from the cath lab by way of a fiberopticline to Archium's working storage controller, a short-term storagedevice based on redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID) technology.The controller can store several weeks' worth of images.

At the same time, images are spooled off to a long-term storagearchive, which can be either a Sony digital optical disk offeredby Camtronics or a medium of the customer's choosing.

Archium then transmits digital data to a cardiac workstation,also via fiberoptics, using two-to-one data compression, whichminimizes data loss. By preserving image data fidelity, Archiumallows a full range of post-processing and quantitative analysistechniques, according to Camtronics.

Archium's working storage controller provides access to archivedimages by acting as a high-speed memory buffer for retrievingpatient studies from various permanent storage media and storingthem on-line. Archium can link to multiple permanent storage devices,allowing cardiac cath labs to change their storage media withouthaving to transfer all of their old data to the new media.

Camtronics plans to play up Archium's flexibility in marketingthe system to cardiac cath labs, according to Terry Rourke, vicepresident of Camtronics.

"Fear of obsolescence has caused many institutions tohold back from selecting a non-film-based image management system,due to the highly dynamic changes in technology," Rourkesaid. "Archium is designed to eliminate this concern."

Archium will be sold through the district sales offices ofx-ray OEMs, but the product will retain the Camtronics label,according to the company.