A Diagnostics & Imaging Week
Spire (Bedford, Massachusetts) has been awarded a $750,000 Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) project from the Department of Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) to develop a terahertz-based standoff detection imager that emits terahertz “light” and then detects the signal reflected from individuals or objects, imaging hidden weapons or explosives that they might be carrying.
Terahertz radiation is like light but lies in a region of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared radiation. Radiation in this region of the spectrum makes it possible to identify objects hidden by clothing or non-metal containers.
Spire is a diversified technology company providing biomedical devices, optoelectronic components and solar energy manufacturing equipment, all based upon a common technology platform.
Cedara Software (Toronto), a Merge Healthcare company that develops medical software technologies, reported an agreement with Eastman Kodak (Rochester, New York) to bring the first computer-aided detection (CAD) system for breast ultrasound to healthcare providers.
Under the agreement, Kodak will distribute Cedara B-CAD to its customers worldwide as part of an integrated solution with its Kodak Carestream Mammography Workstation.
Cedara said Cedara B-CAD is the first commercially available CAD solution designed to assist radiologists in the analysis of breast lesions using ultrasound images. Cedara B-CAD provides tools for automatic image analysis, segmentation, and classification, while reducing the time required to analyze and report the findings of breast ultrasound images. Cedara B-CAD provides a standardized reporting structure defined by the ACR BI-RADS Ultrasound Lexicon Classification Form.
“Ultrasound diagnosis can present a number of challenges to any radiologist. Cedara B-CAD helps to extract valuable information from a medical image and can be helpful to radiologists in diagnosing disease,” said Ron Muscosky, product line manager in Kodak’s Health Group.
Carestream supports both screening and diagnostic workflow, and is scalable from a standalone workstation to a system serving a large mammography workgroup. The Kodak Carestream Mammography Workstation is designed for viewing and storing mammography images and data from full-field digital mammography modalities from multiple vendors. Cedara B-CAD will be offered as an additional option to this comprehensive solution.