An FDA approval has been awarded to Fuji for their digital mammography system. It is actually not the first digital system to be approved. However, this solution is more efficient; it is substantially cheaper (half price) and the design works better:
“Ever since we got these results, radiologists have wanted to go digital,” said Dr. Etta D. Pisano, director of University of North Carolina Biomedical Research Imaging Center and the lead researcher on the 2005 study. “The Fuji system makes a difference. Because it is cheaper … you won’t need to do a forklift upgrade.”
The Fuji system replaces film cassettes with film plates that receive the X-ray data. The processor then uses a laser to read the information on the plate and turns it into a digital signal.
“This will change the face of the mammography business,” said Gerald Durney, administrative director of Radiology at the Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, which will receive the Fuji system in late summer.”
Furthermore…
“The system can also read other digital X-rays, which makes it more cost effective.”
“I could take a chest X-ray and bring it to this same system, and it would turn out a good chest image,” Durney said. “This is key for smaller hospitals.”
Kodak has a similar system that is pending FDA approval. Both will be a sizable part of the digital breast imaging market, which has been analyzed to more than double from 2004 to 2009.
ABC News…
Press Release…
