I cannot give out information about projects we may or may not be working on.
As for 3D imaging, there is a bunch of work around on it. So far there is not alot of real diagnostic benefit other than so-called surgical planning. An interesting 3D-esque technology is Siescape from Siemans which give large-composite ultrasound pictures. It can be used for context in diagnosis, but doing diagnosis from it is pretty limited. It is true that real-time 3D imaging is becoming more feasible from a technical and cost perspective. CT and some other modalities can produce slices which people look at in the form of a video -- that is, viewing each slice in succession. But to take the data and construct a 3D image from it does not obviously produce much more diagnostic information. It does produce a nicer view which has some value. Sooo, while as an engineer the technology is interesting, the market for it isn't obvious.
As for your friends feeling that it will reduce the knowledge neccessary to read ultrasound exams, I doubt it. Unless she means things like auto-segmentation (which is the ability to recognize biological structures in an image) or to aid or automate diagnosis, such as recognizing cysts, etc. So far, no one really knows how to automate any of this very well, and it is massively cpu expensive with the current techniques.
Acuson recently came out with 2nd harmonic imaging which means that the hard to image patient, which is about 50% of them I believe can now be much more effectively imaged. All the advances of ultrasound in the last 15years are primarily about improving imaging in people who are sonogenic in the first place. This is the first real significant advance that addresses the large population of remaining patients. It is definitely an important product feature from Acuson.
thanks,
jeffrey |
