Beth Israel Installs Toshiba's Cardiology Management Network With Infinix Cath Lab Systems.

TUSTIN, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Nov. 11, 1999--

Beth Israel Hospital has installed a complete system for acquiring, managing, viewing and storing cardiac and vascular images offered by Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc. (TAMS).

Beth Israel Heart Institute in New York City has two Toshiba all-digital Infinix(TM) cardiac catheterization labs and has acquired a filmless cardiology management solution designed to rapidly deliver images to physicians throughout the facility. The network also will include an existing Toshiba cardiac cath lab at the facility.

"We were already a filmless department, but we had limited viewing areas," said Warren Sherman, M.D., director, Division of Cardiovascular Intervention and Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Beth Israel Heart Institute. "We now have fast access to the images and superior image quality, our two most important requirements for selecting the Toshiba solution. This means greater efficiency, increased diagnostic confidence and the ability to make treatment decisions faster."

Dr. Sherman added that the system's adherence to all DICOM standards has enabled his team to read cardiac and vascular images from facilities throughout the world regardless of the imaging equipment used in obtaining or transmitting the image. As a world-class heart center, the department is frequently contacted for consultations from overseas.

Likewise, the network enables the facility to download images on CDRs for referring physicians who can open and read the images without special hardware or software.

By integrating Heartlab's DICOMview(R) Cardiac Network image management system into its offerings, Toshiba has created a turnkey, seamless system to handle every step of the imaging process. Clinicians at Beth Israel Heart Institute acquire the images on either of the two Infinix systems or the older lab and then send them through Toshiba's DICOM gateway to the DICOMview Enterprise Server for on-line review.

From there, cardiologists can choose to read diagnostic-quality cases on workstations in the cardiac surgery suite, the cardiology interventional conference room or in the Heart Institute conference room. With three stations available, cardiologists at the facility can review images at their convenience with little concern that someone else may be using the system.

The images are ultimately archived near-line on the DICOMview Image Archive, a DVD jukebox, and can be retrieved from deep archive at the review station in less than 30 seconds. Beth Israel Heart Institute also plans to add a third Toshiba cardiac catheterization lab.

Toshiba's Infinix family of cardiovascular imaging products are compact, flexible all-digital X-ray systems designed for interventional cardiovascular procedures and digital fluoroscopy.

According to the American Heart Association, coronary heart disease is the single largest killer of Americans. More than 12 million people in the U.S. have a history of heart attack and/or chest pain. Cardiac catheterization provides some of the most effective and widely used tools for assessing cardiac function. Additionally, therapeutic procedures performed in the lab (such as balloon angioplasty) offer a less traumatic, less expensive alternative to cardiac bypass surgery for many patients with coronary artery disease. In 1997, an estimated 3.41 million procedures were performed in the 1,790 cardiac catheterization labs operating in U.S. hospitals and imaging centers as reported in "Benchmark Report -- 1997 Cardiac Catheterization" from Technology Marketing Group.

With headquarters in Tustin, Toshiba America Medical Systems is a subsidiary of Toshiba America Inc., which employs 10,000 throughout the United States. TAMS markets, sells, distributes and services diagnostic imaging (DI) systems and coordinates clinical DI research. Toshiba's imaging products include CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, ultrasound, and both conventional and vascular X-ray systems. Toshiba America MRI Inc., in South San Francisco, has responsibility for research and development, engineering and manufacturing of diagnostic imaging equipment in the United States. Toshiba America Medical Corp., a major provider of electronics and energy systems and products -- a $43 billion organization with over 198,000 employees worldwide.