FDA Clears Siemens Healthineers Intelligent Radiography System

Siemens Healthineers announced Monday it has secured 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for its ceiling-mounted radiography system.

Dubbed YSIO X.pree, this system uses the MyExam Companion intelligent user interface and comes with a new 3D camera that can help technologists with patient positioning and advanced collimation. Together, with a new smart image processing engine, company officials said, the system can augment patient and user experience, as well as optimize clinical operations.

“The YSIO X.pree ceiling-mounted radiography system represents a dramatic leap forward in intelligent X-ray imaging,” said Niral Patel, vice president of X-ray products, “providing our customers with an unprecedented level of intuitive operation for consistent X-ray images and potential faster workflow.”

For consistency, according to a company statement, the new image processing database allows technologists to set preferred image contrasts, and it removes image noise. In addition, it allows for low-dose settings, can limit the need for additional patient exposure, and produce cropped images with artificial intelligence-based cropping.

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This is Siemens’ first X-ray system armed with MyExam Companion. While this interface can help technologists of any experience level work through an X-ray procedure, said company representatives, it also brings together available demographic patient data with other machine-observable, patient-specific details that can lead to optimal acquisition and reconstruction parameters.

The system’s 3D camera offers several features that can streamline and accelerate workflow:

• Virtual Collimation: Allows technologists to adjust, via a touchscreen monitor, the size and shape of the X-ray beam to reduce the volume of tissue exposed to radiation.
• Smart Virtual Ortho: Shortens preparation times for multi-image orthopedic acquisitions by adjusting exposure parameters based on individual patients, making it easier to capture long-leg and full-spine images.
• Auto Thorax Collimation: Uses automated, AI-based body part detection and collimation to analyze the patient’s body contour and make half-second collimator blade adjustments, speeding up the workflow associated with thorax studies.