Your Guide to Medical Imaging Equipment

In the cardiovascular imaging community, there has been much anticipation over the last few months regarding the proposed addition of some codes to the ambulatory surgery center (ASC) payable list. Well, the day has come and it is good news!

Whether you have an existing office-based lab (OBL), or you are looking to start a new one, one of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make is which imaging equipment your physicians will use. There's a lot to consider, not the least of which is whether you'll be best served by a cath lab or by a C-arm.

To help you in making that decision, we compare the two modalities below to highlight their separate strengths and provide some insight on what kind(s) of work each is better suited for.

If you're researching interventional labs, you'll see almost immediately: two of the hottest contenders on the market are the GE Innova 4100 and the Philips Allura FD20. The next question becomes something like: "Which of these is better for my facility?" That's an excellent question and one that can only be answered by weighing your facility's situation against the pros and cons of these two labs. That's where a good, old-fashioned comparison article like this comes in!

We'll kick off this comparison by saying that both of these models are high-quality systems that excel in a number of areas. The points below will highlight their separate strengths to lend some clarity to the choice between the two.

From where to have lunch to when to retire, life is filled with decisions that require careful consideration. Not the least of these is how to protect your CT, MRI, X-ray, or other medical imaging equipment with service and maintenance coverage.

No two imaging facilities are exactly alike, and that's why there is some flexibility among the plans you'll find on the service market. To help reduce your legwork as you enter the service market, we'll cover here three common imaging equipment service plans offered by service providers.

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.