New Design for Portable, Digital X-Ray

CHICAGO - - When Carestream designers set out to make a new portable, digital x-ray unit, they watched videotapes of radiographers moving other mobile carts. Staff craned to see around tall x-ray columns and avoid patients in hallways. They rooted through bags jury-rigged to cart sides to find gloves and other supplies, and narrowly avoided IV lines trying to turn the systems crowded ICUs.

“We tried to answer the problems of portable x-ray – and there are many,” smiled Helen Titus, worldwide marketing manager, capture products, for Carestream, as she watched a radiologist swirl her new product on the exhibit floor at RSNA 2011. “We wanted to make everyone’s lives easier.”

The new CareStream DRX-Revolution Mobile X-Ray System – which is awaiting FDA clearance, with worldwide availability expected in mid-2012 --has a compact design. The top column collapses almost entirely. Two, independent wheel drives systems make it possible to turn the device in a full circle using one hand and while standing in place, Titus said. There are built-in holders for gloves and sani-wipes. And the system’s software uses a grid platform to exactly align the x-ray tube. Users see a video-game-like image that indicates exactly when the tube is properly positioned to reduce scatter.
The DRX-Revolution uses Carestream’s DRX-1 detector, which can be moved to any room-based or mobile imaging system.
 

“It has brought excitement back into x-ray,” said Titus.