Cardiovascular Business - November/December 2008 - (Page 25)

Segmentation of left coronary circulation over a transparent heart with anomalous right coronary artery demonstrated in red. Image courtesy of Visage Imaging. A 3D view of the heart showing an anomalous circumﬂex where the circumﬂex is bifurcating from the right coronary artery. Image courtesy of Vital Images. Surgeons also like to have access to 3D heart images, such as this one showing calciﬁcation, to help plan interventions and surgeries. Image courtesy of TeraRecon. Other clinical departments in their hospital client base have also sought access to the technology, with very positive results. “It’s shown great beneﬁt for our cardiothoracic surgeons,” he says. “The surgeon can call up the 3D image in real time and use it to determine anatomy in order to better guide their surgical intervention.” Success in the operating room has led other interventional groups to utilize the advanced visualization images from the Heart Center. “We’ve also started using advanced visualization technology in our peripheral vascular lab,” Ridner notes. “This has allowed the clinicians to use the image to plan their intervention without having to take additional guiding images of the patient for their procedure.” To demonstrate the capabilities of advanced visualization technology, Ridner and his partners at the Heart Center offered their entire referring clinician base the opportunity to have a no-cost CT heart scan conducted. They then performed 3D reconstructions and met with the physicians one-on-one to show them the images and discuss the results. “We had over 300 doctors take advantage of this opportunity,” he says. “When they saw the results, they were sold for life.” Know post-processing Elliot Fishman, MD, a professor of radiology and oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and a long-time proponent of advanced visualization technology, offered practical advice for a private practice looking to place the technology into their service line. He spoke at the 2008 meeting of the North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging in Phoenix. “The ﬁrst thing, of course, is the ability to acquire the data sets; so, you need to know how to use the scanner well. You need to have it optimized, because when all is said and done unless you have a good data set, nothing else happens,” he says. Achieving expertise on the advanced visualization application is the next step a practice must take for successful deployment of the technology, Fishman says. “The interpreting clinician must gain expertise on the advanced visualization software; it’s this post-processing that allows you to make an accurate diagnosis.” Fishman says that cardiologists often will not venture into cardiac CT because of the perception that it’s difficult to acquire and post-process the data. But that was with yesterday’s technology, he says. “Today, the tools are easier, simpler, and more quantitative—but you still have to learn how to use them.” He adds that as the interpreting physician, cardiologists should know how to do the post-processing. “You need to be interactive with the data set or you’re just not going to feel comfortable reading the studies.” CardiovascularBusiness.com Cardiovascular Business 25 http://www.CardiovascularBusiness.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cardiovascular Business - November/December 2008

Cardiovascular Business - November/December 2008 Contents First Word Cover Story: Practice Management Software Moves Beyond Bean Counting The Death of CME as We Know It? Clinical Study Digets: Triple-Antiplatelet Therapy; Ex-Vioxx Users Beware Shockwaves Subside from the FDA's Echo Contract Warning Burning Question: Does Laser Heart Therapy for Angina Really Work? Advanced Visualization Adds New Practive Dimension Coronary Calcium Scoring Program Reaps Dividends Interventionalists Get Pumped Up About Mechanical Chest Compression Trials Force Physicians to Re-Examine Oral Anti-Diabetic Drug Protocols News & Views Calendar Reader Resources The ACC Corner

Cardiovascular Business - November/December 2008

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