The highlight of this MRI Update is a course presented by Dr David Stoller, MD, FACR, from San Francisco, USA. Dr Stoller is an internationally renowned orthopaedic and musculoskeletal Radiologist, as well as a respected author on the topic. The course will be attended by approximately 350 delegates with special emphasis on interpreting MRI Joint studies.

The course is to be held at the BMW Pavilion, at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, from 19-20 March 2010.

Siemens Healthcare will use the opportunity of this prestigious event to launch syngo.via, the world’s first system to provide pre-automated processing of images.

Sven Tolstrup, Business Development Manager for Siemens Healthcare explains that Picture Archiving Communications Systems have come a long way since the days when doctors had to pore over black and white film images adhered to a lightbox. We’ve seen this process become completely digitised, with the limited two dimensional images making way for data sets that render more accurate 3D images of patients.

syngo.via takes this evolution one step further, allowing for high-end pre-processing. “There are literally thousands of images that can represent any single part of the human body,” Tolstrup points out. This means that a doctor who is, for instance, conducting a heart exam first had to process the images data sets and then extract the pertinent anatomical data from the generated volumes of data, wasting precious minutes in the process. syngo.via, on the other hand, is able to process the extraneous images, presenting only the relevant dataset for diagnosis. This is made possible by algorithmic engines embedded within the system, which are tailored for every type of body exam, allowing doctors to spend less time manipulating images. Using the example of a cardiologist once more, doctors are presented with reconstructed images of the heart only, with syngo.via having automatically removed the blood pool and ribcage from the dataset.

“Essentially, we’re creating high quality reading with effective and efficient workflow,” Tolstrup continues, adding that syngo.via is both task- and disease-oriented. “The system is self-intelligent, using the patients registered organ and condition to prepare all data and imaging necessary.”

The benefits are crucial; in a medical situation, minutes can mean the difference between life and death, Tolstrup notes. “Returning yet again to the example of a patient experiencing a heart attack, precious minutes would already have been lost getting the patient to the hospital, then conducting the examination. If you have to wait for the radiologist to interpret images, still more time is lost. syngo.via saves as much as 10 to 20 minutes, because the system generates and presents reconstructed 3D images and relevant datasets automatically, allowing the Radiologist to focus on diagnosis which in turn greatly improves the patient’s chances of recovery.”

syngo.via will be available to South African medical practitioners from August 2010.

About Siemens Southern Africa:

Siemens has had a presence in South Africa since 1860 when the company installed the first telegraph line linking Cape Town and Simon’s Town. Today, Siemens offers a balanced portfolio of technologies focusing on the Industry, Energy and Healthcare sectors, together with the cross-sector business of Siemens IT Solutions and Services. The unique ability to offer horizontal, customised, end-to-end technology solutions enables Siemens to keep its customers one-step ahead. As a committed corporate citizen, Siemens has active corporate social investment programmes as well as a comprehensive approach to local content, manpower development, skills and training. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.co.za