The dose dash
It is one thing to lower the amount of radiation required to acquire an image, but it is quite another to manage the people and protocols used to acquire the images and aggregate patient dose, and that is where Radimetrics, booth 7800, is going. Their web-based tool can provide a cumulative dose by patient--and organ--and also store protocols and issue does alerts for patients who may be set to exceed a specified dose threshold.
How they derive the dose information is a big part of why the product is being so well received. The system collects the DICOM structured report and key patient data (sex, age) from the DICOM header and also captures the dose length product via optical character recognition. Using Monte Carlo simulation, the system uses a what-if scenario to calculate the likely absorbed dose.
The dashboard part of the product shows dosimetry by operator, efficiency by device, dose by protocol, dose by institution, and more. Currently, institutions are using the tool less to produce dose reports and more to assess their status. "Everyone is baselining their operations," explains John Adziovsky, VP. "they are using this as a quality control package to check their protocols. It's all about how we do exams."
Cheryl Proval, Vice President, Executive Editor, Radiology Business
Cheryl began her career in journalism when Wite-Out was a relatively new technology. During the past 16 years, she has covered radiology and followed developments in healthcare policy. She holds a BA in History from the University of Delaware and likes nothing better than a good story, well told.