FDA clears ATL's Access system

The Food and Drug Administrationthis month gave ultrasound vendor ATL the thumbs-up to sell itsAccess ultrasound image management system. ATL plans to beginshipping Access this fall, according to Lance Hood, manager ofAccess operations.

Access was developed by ATL's Nova MicroSonics division andworks with both ATL systems and those of other vendors. The systemwas initially known as Digital Laboratory until ATL changed theproduct's name to Access at last year's Radiological Society ofNorth America meeting (SCAN 12/29/93).

There are three main elements to Access:

** A 486 66-MHz workstation running IBM's OS/2 operating system.ATL offers the Access workstation in two options: Access 200,a desktop configuration, and Access 300, a tower configuration.In addition, Access 300 can be placed on a cart for mobile operations;

** An acquisition module that acquires the video output ofultrasound systems. The module can either digitize the signalinto an ACR-NEMA DICOM 3.0 signal for networking or store it ontoan optical disk in the data exchange file format (DEFF) protocol;and

** A 486-based network file server that archives and retrievesnetworked ultrasound images. As an option, the server can be linkedto an optical disk jukebox that can store up to 144 platters.

Access is scalable, with options ranging from a single Accessacquisition module to multiple workstations networked to an opticaldisk jukebox. An Access system for a typical ultrasound departmentwill cost between $75,000 to $150,000, according to Hood.

In other ATL news, the company announced that it has openeda subsidiary in Singapore for sales and service of ultrasoundequipment throughout Asia. ATL Singapore Ltd. will support ATL'sgrowing customer base in the region, the company said.