CHICAGO - Imaging vendors Hologic and Siemens Medical Solutions have agreed to form an alliance covering the development of full-field digital mammography (FFDM) systems. Under the terms of the proposed deal, Hologic of Bedford, MA, will supply its amorphous selenium flat-panel detectors to Siemens for incorporation into the German vendor’s mammography systems.
The deal is a good fit for both companies. Siemens wins a flat-panel technology platform that it believes compares favorably to the amorphous silicon FFDM approach being used by mammography market leader GE Medical Systems of Waukesha, WI. Meanwhile, Hologic gains a major OEM customer for its digital technology. The companies expect to formalize the relationship shortly.
Siemens has been building a pathway to digital mammography through OEM relationships with other vendors. The company already has an alliance with Fujifilm Medical Systems USA of Stamford, CT, covering the use of computed radiography plates in Siemens mammography units, but until yesterday’s announcement had left its flat-panel options open.
Hologic’s technology will form the basis of a flat-panel offering that will stand at the top of the Siemens digital mammography product line, according to Thomas Stetter, marketing manager for the company’s women’s health and mobile generators division in Solna, Sweden. The Fuji-based CR mammography system will be positioned as a mid-tier digital mammography product, much as the digital radiography market is being divided between CR and DR systems, he said. Sites with lower throughput and fewer capital resources might purchase a CR digital mammography system, while high-throughput centers could go with the flat-panel approach.
In addition to offering the panels on new mammography systems, Siemens will market them as a retrofit option to installed Mammomat 3000 Nova systems in the field. The German vendor is targeting mid-2003 for approval of the flat-panel unit, while clearance of the CR-based system should occur earlier that year.
Hologic executives see the alliance as a validation of the company’s technology, which is based on work conducted by its Direct Radiography Corp. subsidiary. DRC originally targeted the radiography market, but has begun to focus on mammography due to the favorable performance characteristics of amorphous selenium when compared to amorphous silicon, according to Jay Stein, chairman and chief technology officer at Hologic.
The two major factors in determining digital image capture performance are detective quantum efficiency (DQE) and modulation transfer function (MTF), and Hologic believes that amorphous selenium outperforms amorphous silicon on both counts, Stein said. The DQE of the Hologic panel is 50% better than GE’s system across the spectrum, and is twice as good as film-screen mammography, he said. The panel’s 70-micron spot size also compares favorably to the 100-micron pixel pitch found on GE’s Senographe 2000D full-field digital system.
Hologic still plans to commercialize its own FFDM system, which it is demonstrating on the RSNA floor as Lorad M-IV Platinum Selenia. The work-in-progress unit is in clinical trials at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, and another unit is being used by Dr. Daniel Kopans at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Hologic is planning to file a pre-market approval (PMA) application for the system based on the work at both institutions.
Hologic sees the Siemens relationship as complementary to its own efforts in the mammography market. Siemens’ main strength is in international markets, where Hologic is less active. Hologic will also be able to offer the panel to its installed base of M-IV systems, Stein said. At issue is whether the company will continue with its effort to win approval for an FFDM system based on charge-coupled device (CCD) technology. That effort could be shelved if the amorphous selenium project proceeds quickly.
Another aspect of the alliance covers the development of a mammography workstation that both companies will be able to sell. Siemens will make available to Hologic its mammography image review software, which it is showing in its RSNA booth as MammoReport Plus. In addition to image review, the workstation will also incorporate workflow and computer-aided detection (CAD) functionality.
By Brian Casey
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
November 26, 2001
For the rest of our coverage of the 2001 RSNA meeting, go to our RADCast@RSNA 2001.
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