Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Siemens Healthcare's CT Imaging Solution for the Value it Offers Both Service Providers and Patients

- FAST CARE has been identified as the industry's most effective solution for optimizing exam speed, image quality and radiation dose exposure in CT

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, July 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of workflow solutions for the computed tomography (CT) imaging market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Siemens Healthcare with the 2012 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Customer Value Enhancement. The company's FAST CARE solution that works with Siemens' SOMATOM Definition AS and Flash scanners address the diverse needs of CT technologists, physicians, and patients alike.

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"Consistent pressure to leverage imaging services and patient care in a fast growing environment have made workflow and productivity top priorities for CT image service providers across the U.S.," said Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Roberto Aranibar. "The challenge for providers lies not only in increasing the rate at which imaging procedures are performed, but also in delivering exams that continue to meet physician and industry expectations for image quality, radiation dose and patient care."

FAST (Fully Assisting Scanner Technologies) and CARE (Combined Applications to Reduce Exposure), the two components of FAST CARE, potentially make it possible for service providers to streamline workflow and maximize productivity while maintaining high image quality with low radiation dose, and enabling the delivery of patient-centric healthcare.

Siemens' FAST solutions are designed to simplify and expedite tasks for the imaging technologist throughout a procedure—during planning, setup, scanning, image reconstruction and data evaluation. It may reduce time-intensive and technically difficult tasks to a single click of a mouse. The highly-automated operation of FAST solutions also enables consistent delivery of high-quality images.

For instance, FAST Planning automates scan and reconstruction ranges, potentially speeding and simplifying the process of setting up an organ-targeted scan. FAST Adjust may streamline workflow by replacing manual scan parameter adjustment with a single mouse click. FAST also includes solutions designed to improve workflow efficiency for specific clinical applications, such as FAST Spine that automates the setup of reconstruction modes for individual vertebrae and discs during spinal exams, a task that can take up to half an hour when performed manually.

CARE kV is a feature that quickly and accurately optimizes kV and mA settings according to each patient and exam type limiting the applied dose while maintaining high image quality. CARE Profile promotes more active management of dose in the user interface by displaying planned dose distribution over the defined scan range next to a patient's topogram.

Similarly, the Siemens CARE technologies are designed to expose patients to the lowest radiation dose necessary to achieve the specific diagnostic objectives of an imaging study, in accordance with the ALARA (As Low as Reasonably Achievable) principle. Doses are actively managed through CARE Dashboard, the central interface window that provides a complete picture of all dose reduction features that are activated prior to initiating a scan. This at-a-glance overview makes it easy for technologists to manage dose reduction features and visually confirm that they are taking advantage of all possible dose-savings opportunities.

"Most importantly, FAST CARE enables providers to make the patient the primary focus of every CT procedure, while delivering exams that meet today's high expectations in productivity, dose and image quality," concludes Aranibar.

In recognition, Frost & Sullivan is pleased to present the 2012 North American Customer Value Enhancement Award for workflow solutions in computed tomography to Siemens Healthcare. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in providing solutions that proactively create value for its customers with a focus on improving the return on the investment that customers make in its services or products. This award recognizes the company's inordinate focus on enhancing the value that its customers receive, beyond simply meeting minimum industry standards, leading to improved customer retention and, ultimately, customer base expansion.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Siemens Healthcare

The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 51,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. In fiscal year 2011 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 12.5 billion euros and profit of around 1.3 billion euros. For further information please visit: www.siemens.com/healthcare.  

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan