Agfa touts new Impax software, CR technologies

Nov 28, 2007

CHICAGO - New advances in digital x-ray and RIS/PACS software are being highlighted in the RSNA booth of Agfa HealthCare of Greenville, SC.

PACS/healthcare informatics

Agfa unveiled Impax 6.4, which features the integration of the company's RIS/PACS/reporting information and image management technologies into one start-to-finish workflow. The release includes new visualization and navigation tools for large volume studies, such as CT and MRI, with complex multiseries review.

Agfa is featuring its Impax system in its booth.

New to Impax 6.4 is a redesigned clinical information page that provides access to clinical data during the image review, embedded reporting tools for more productive voice-enabled communication with ED and dictation solutions, and Impax SmartSeek, a context-driven, URL-based query model to support information searches.

Combined with Impax RIS is a suite of integrated clinical applications for advanced image processing, including the works-in-progress applications that will introduce virtual colonoscopy, PET/CT registration fusion, and advanced measurement and templating.

Agfa also launched two new product-related e-learning courses, covering its Impax 6 PACS, and an introduction to hospital scheduling system IPlan.

The interactive e-learning packages are designed to allow users of Agfa products to be trained at their own pace. They also serve as an online reference tool for future use to support ongoing education.

Agfa has launched two new e-learning courses.

Impax 6's fully animated e-learning course introduces the general concepts and various functionalities of Impax 6, Agfa's application for imaging-based planning, interpretation, and results distribution.

The animated, interactive IPlan e-learning course also is designed to help acquaint users with Agfa's IPlan scheduling technology, which allows hospital staff and referring physicians to make and view appointments.

Digital x-ray

In a case of good timing, Agfa received regulatory clearance to market its computed radiography (CR)-based mammography system in Canada during the RSNA show. The company said it has sold more than 1,000 CR mammography systems internationally, although it is still awaiting final regulatory clearance in the U.S.

In general-purpose CR, the company is talking up its CR30-X, a compact desktop CR reader. One feature of the system is its relative simplicity, with only six separate modules in the device, making it easier to service. For scoliosis imaging, Agfa is promoting CR Easy Lift, which enables users to acquire three images that can be stitched together via software.

Meanwhile, DX-S is a cassette-based storage phosphor system designed to be offered as a complete digital x-ray room, as an alternative to more expensive flat-panel DR offerings. The system features a high detective quantum efficiency (DQE), more than twice that of CR, and produces a first image in eight to 11 seconds. The system is based on Agfa's DirectriX and Scanhead technologies.

Output systems

Drystar Axys is Agfa's new tabletop printer.

Drystar Axys is a new tabletop printer designed to support multiple imaging modalities, including mammography. The system features 508 dots per inch (dpi) image resolution, very short access time, and full flexibility with two film sizes online.

The printer features a compact design, and can be installed in space-restricted environments or, using an optional mobile mounting kit, in mobile vans. Like other Agfa imagers, the system uses the company's Direct Digital Imaging (DDI) technology, software that controls every pixel in an image to provide improved, consistent image quality.

By Brian Casey and Wayne Forrest
AuntMinnie.com staff writers
November 27, 2007

Agfa nets Premier contract, November 25, 2007

Road to RSNA, PACS, Agfa HealthCare, October 25, 2007

Agfa launches Impax CV suite at ESC, September 4, 2007

Agfa highlights Impax news at SIIM, June 7, 2007