Your Guide to Medical Imaging Equipment

Not long ago most types of imaging equipment were reserved for humans. If a scan was to be performed on a family pet, an X-ray was about as far as most veterinarians would go. Now, with an increasing number of animal owners willing to spend whatever it takes to get their pets the best care, more and more vet facilities have integrated full-on radiology departments into their practice.

We recently partnered with a vet center on a cath lab installation, which turned out to be just one in a full stable of systems running in their facility. Ultrasound, X-ray, C-arm, CT, MRI, nuclear camera, and even a linear accelerator, are all installed and scanning patients on a regular basis.

With interest like this on the rise, "What's the best cath lab for veterinary use?" has become a regular question for our team. In the next few paragraphs, we'll share our take on the question and give you a few considerations to keep in mind as you shop for your veterinary cath lab system.

Whether your facility is in the US and measures radiation absorbed dose in milligrays, or is in Europe or Asia and measures in rads, there's a setting on the OEC 9800 to express that measurement in the preferred unit. Change this setting to keep communication clear and to save yourself the trouble of doing the conversion in your head every time you have a case.

To make things easier for yourself, you can change the dose units on your OEC 9800 between rad and mGy in the three easy steps pictured below. And if you don't already know how to convert between these two units, stick around until the end. We'll share that with you too.

The medical imaging equipment marketplace is home to a variety of vendors that offer a range of products and services at several levels. In fact, the opportunity to find someone/something that fits your needs precisely is one of the market's strengths. But when it comes to a turnkey experience- complete and efficient support from project start to project finish- not all vendors are equipped to execute well.

The video below shows four problems imaging equipment buyers sometimes face when they enter the refurbished market and what you can look for in a vendor to avoid them.

There are a lot of circumstances that lead imaging facilities to consider renting a mobile system. Some of these circumstances come with challenges that can be, to put it mildly, stress-inducing. When these challenges come up, you needn't worry- there are answers to your questions and providers who can accommodate. 

The video below shows four of the most common problems mobile imaging renters have and how they can be resolved or avoided altogether.

Recently, a proposal through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recommended a change to the 2020 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) that would reduce reimbursement for cardiac PET scan procedures by 80%. While the proposed change doesn't prevent anyone from continuing to offer cardiac PET services, it does drop reimbursement to a level well below what's needed to maintain a viable cardiac imaging service, a move that will force many providers out of the market and eliminate access to service for the majority of patients.

This news raises several questions. What is CMS thinking with this proposal? What will patients do if the proposal is accepted? And what can be done about it? We'll answer these questions below to shed more light on the situation and what's to be done as CMS administrators make their deliberations.