Installation of three ultrasound platforms allows Bradford to develop services
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has acquired three Philips Epiq Elite ultrasound systems, two for use at Bradford Royal Infirmary and the third for St Luke’s Hospital. The machines at Bradford Royal Infirmary will be used for inpatients, including interventional procedures, whereas the machine at St Luke’s will be used mainly for OP MSK patients.
The trust selected the Philips equipment for its reliability and image quality, as principal superintendent in ultrasound Karen Lomas explained: “As well as reliability and image quality, a factor in our choice was the excellent sales and clinical applications support supplied by Philips. The equipment also performed well at the trial for fusion imaging.
“The systems come with Philips ElastQ Imaging shear wave elastography software and we plan to transfer liver elastography assessment from fibroscan to radiology shear wave. It will also allow us to develop our fusion-targeted prostate biopsy service further, together with our CEUS service at Bradford.”
ElastQ Imaging high performance shear wave elasto-graphy features real-time, large ROI colour-coded quantitative assessment of tissue stiffness and also includes the ability to make retrospective measures on stored images. A confidence map display uses intelligent analysis to give additional assurance that user measurements are obtained on tissue areas with adequate shear wave propagation.
Lomas added: “We find the systems very user-friendly and we particularly like the intuitive parameter controls. The Bradford ultrasound service is a busy 17 room department with a dedicated, motivated team of sonographers and radiologists providing care to a diverse population of approximately 350,000. We have had excellent communication with Philips’ sales and clinical applications teams and this has proved invaluable for us.”
Philips’ image fusion combines the inherent advantages of multi-modality imaging directly on the ultrasound system using electromagnetic tracking. It comes with a full suite of solutions including Adaptive Needle Tracker and Co-axial Needle Trackers.
Picture: Philips UKI ultrasound applications specialist Clare Neil, sonographer James Chan, principal superintendent in ultrasound Karen Lomas and sonographers Nicola Hood and Danielle Pearson.
Published on page 3 of the April 2020 issue of RAD Magazine.