Fujifilm’s point-of-care ultrasound scores FDA clearance for COVID-19 use, plus more radiology vendor news
Fujifilm has scored clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market its point-of-care ultrasound systems for COVID-19 assessment, the company announced recently.
The designation spans across its entire line of POCUS products and is aimed at aiding providers in imaging the lung and heart of patients with the novel coronavirus. Fujifilm said it’s also releasing a comprehensive guide on the interpretation of images with typical findings of the virus.
"POCUS has emerged as a critical tool to support clinicians in their tireless efforts to evaluate lung and cardiac complications of COVID-19," Diku Mandavia, MD, senior VP and chief medical officer of FUJIFILM Sonosite Inc., said in a statement.
Portable MRI touted in JAMA
Low-field portable MRI can be deployed successfully in the intensive care unit, according to new research published Tuesday in JAMA Neurology.
Scientists tested out the effectiveness of Hyperfine’s new bedside magnetic resonance imaging machine at Yale New Haven Hospital over a more than half-year period. In a population of 50 patients—with clinical concerns ranging from ischemic stroke to traumatic brain injury—the machine was able to detect abnormal imaging findings in 29 out of 30 patients without COVID-19.
Meanwhile, portable MRI detected abnormalities in 8 of 20 patients with the novel coronavirus, and the study logged no adverse events or complications.
“In conclusion, this experience demonstrates that low-field portable MRI can be deployed successfully into intensive care settings,” Kevin Sheth, MD, with the Department of Neurology at Yale University’s School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote Sept. 8. “This approach may hold promise for portable assessment of neurological injury in other scenarios, including the emergency department, mobile stroke units and resource-limited environments.”
Connecticut-based Hyperfine first scored initial FDA clearance for its portable MRI machine back in February. The company’s founder and chairman, Jonathan Rothberg, PhD, also served as a co-author in this week’s JAMA study. You can read more details of the analysis here.
United Imaging, Mass General partner on AI
Radiology vendor United Imaging is teaming with Massachusetts General Hospital to harness artificial intelligence in the fight against COVID-19, the partners announced Tuesday.
The Houston firm has already worked with data from thousands of patients outside of the U.S. to develop its AI software. Now, its joining the Harvard-affiliated institution to help its front-line providers to detect, predict and quantify the novel coronavirus. United and MGH have established a joint research collaborative between their teams in Shanghai and Boston, and they’ll work to build and refine models from chest x-ray and CT images, according to an announcement.
"We believe that our research will be very important to fighting the pandemic in the long term, so we have agreed that all the intellectual property generated from this collaboration will be public," Terrence Chen, PhD, CEO of United Imaging Intelligence America, said in a statement.
Rapid fire
Here are a few more radiology vendor-related news items of note, in rapid fashion:
- Enlitic Inc., a “leading developer” of AI software used in diagnostic imaging, has inked a deal to pilot its platform at Veterans Affairs and Defense Health Agency medical treatment facilities.
- The U.S. FDA recently cleared KA Imaging’s portable, dual energy x-ray detector.
- Las Vegas radiology practice Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging said Monday that it’s one of the first to offer Canon’s new digital PET/CT system.
- And finally, ultrasound imaging provider Stork Vision recently announced that it is partnering with Nightfood Inc. to offer the manufacturer’s products as part of the goodie bags it hands out to customers.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.