RSNA 2022 Showcases Groundbreaking Innovations from GE, Philips, Siemens, and Canon Amid New SEC Filings

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The 108th RSNA North American Radiological Annual Meeting was held in Chicago from November 27 to December 1. The theme of this year's conference is "Empowering Patients and Partners in Care—Empowering People-Oriented Care."

RSNA: The Radiological Society of North America was founded in 1915. For over a century, it has seen a flourishing of academic achievements and an emergence of innovative ideas. Under its promotion, radiology has grown from nothing to become stronger, witnessing the birth of countless new devices. Meanwhile, RSNA is also the most impartial platform for academic publication, capable of releasing the latest research findings at the fastest speed. Presenting one's research at the top international academic conference is a dream for every young scholar.

01

GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare is the first equipment manufacturer in the industry to strategically deploy in the field of artificial intelligence. As a trusted innovator in medical technology, it has been deeply involved in the development of healthcare systems worldwide for many years, committed to expanding and evenly distributing high-quality medical resources, as well as filling gaps in healthcare system workflows.

To help clinicians provide more personalized and precise medical services to patients while improving the efficiency of healthcare systems, GE Healthcare unveiled over 40 new products and solutions at RSNA 2022. Below, we highlight a few groundbreaking solutions:

SIGNA Experience

SIGNA Experience is an innovative technology platform that integrates artificial intelligence and deep learning to improve workflow, enhance clinical efficiency, and enable an intelligent and user-friendly magnetic resonance imaging system.

This platform integrates four major innovative components, including the intuitive and extremely user-friendly interface SIGNA One, as well as AIR Recon DL, AIR Coils, and automated workflow solutions. Built on SIGNA One, it leverages AI and deep learning to enhance workflow efficiency, clinical productivity, automation, and simplicity, ensuring a smooth and seamless scanning experience in magnetic resonance (MR) imaging while improving clinical workflow efficiency.

Revolution Frontier Gen 3

This is the latest product in the GE Revolution CT series, offering a convenient GSI (Gemstone Spectral Imaging) experience, the astonishing TrueFidelity deep learning image reconstruction system, and innovative patient positioning and auto-centering technologies, significantly enhancing the diagnostic capabilities and efficiency of daily CT scans.

CT Motion

This is GE Healthcare's multi-dose needle-free injector, which delivers iodinated contrast agents for computed tomography (CT) imaging procedures. It can reduce setup time, increase patient throughput, and help optimize patient dosing.

Quality Care Suite 2.0

A series of AI algorithm combinations for X-ray examinations can provide high-quality images at the radiologist level and AI-based quality control for each patient (including pediatric patients). This is GE Healthcare's first AI application in the X-ray imaging field.

Omni Legend

It is an innovative, fully digital PET/CT platform that supports clinicians in performing imaging with tracers, while significantly enhancing sensitivity and detectability to obtain clearer images and more clinical information across a wider range of oncology, cardiology, and neurology procedures. The system offers the highest sensitivity per centimeter in the market and provides Gallium-68 imaging for diagnosing, staging, or detecting recurrence of diseases.

SPECT/CT StarGuide

It is a dual-channel, fully digital nuclear medicine imaging device that provides new detector technology to support the completion of the diagnosis and treatment process, including lutetium-177 for prostate cancer treatment. It offers more targeted radiopharmaceuticals and provides Xeleris V based on AI solutions, enabling clinicians to quickly obtain comprehensive diagnostic information for accurate diagnosis and monitoring of patients' conditions.

02

Philips

Philips, founded in the Netherlands in 1891, mainly produces products in lighting, home appliances, and medical systems. The company has transformed from the Philips family business into a global multinational corporation managed by modern professional managers. Over its 130-year history, it evolved from a lighting business to an almost all-encompassing diversified enterprise, and then continuously "slimmed down," eventually selling off its original lighting business to focus solely on healthcare. Philips successfully transitioned from an electronics group to a medical group.

As a healthcare expert in cardiology, oncology, critical care, and women's health, Philips has never lacked "powerful tools" and "heavyweights" at its booth during past RSNA events. Let’s take a look at the exciting highlights from Philips at this year’s exhibition:

Spectral CT

The global cancer burden data released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization shows that China has 4.57 million new cancer cases and 3 million cancer deaths, ranking first globally. The皓克Spectral CT, equipped with a brand-new spherical wide-body dual-layer energy-resolving detector and an integrated tumor diagnosis and treatment solution, provides comprehensive and rapid full-process tumor evaluation services, covering early tumor detection, precise staging, and efficacy assessment, excelling in accurately targeting occult tumors.

With its 80 cm large-aperture design combined with spectral precision analysis capabilities, it will significantly enhance the accuracy of target delineation, enabling precise tumor radiotherapy guidance and interventional treatment. Meanwhile, its unique 100kVp low-dose spectral imaging has demonstrated high clinical value in cardiovascular, oncology, and neurology-related diseases.

In addition, this CT is equipped with the brand-new spectral "Cloud Magic Mirror" (a lightweight spectral multi-parameter image visualization solution), enabling flexible and on-demand spectral clinical applications anytime and anywhere, making precise spectral diagnosis easily accessible. Multi-parameter functional imaging improves the efficiency of medical resource utilization, reduces pressure on doctors, avoids repeated examinations, and effortlessly achieves "All in One" precision diagnosis in a single step. Currently, Philips’ latest generation Spectral Imaging Spectral CT (Haoke Spectral CT) has received certification from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) and has officially entered the Chinese market.

SmartSpeed

The all-new next-generation compressed sensing technology, SmartSpeed, embeds artificial intelligence (AI) into the entire process of magnetic resonance imaging, including acquisition, transmission, and reconstruction. It breaks through the limitations of traditional acceleration techniques in acquisition methods and reconstruction algorithms. While ensuring no loss in image quality, it achieves scan acceleration up to 3 times, providing higher image resolution. Its emergence also represents a significant leap in diagnostic confidence and MR department productivity.

IntelliSpace Portal V13

IntelliSpace Portal V13, as an advanced visualization application platform covering multiple fields and modalities, incorporates cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology. It includes a brand-new MR Cardiac Suite; CT brain perfusion, pneumonia, automatic coronary calcium scoring, pulmonary nodule assessment, ASPECT scoring, and more—covering clinical applications across cardiovascular, neurology, and oncology fields—providing a one-stop solution for complex cases.

Nuclear Medicine ISP Advanced Molecular Imaging Data Platform

The newly upgraded IntelliSpace Portal provides a comprehensive solution for clinical evaluation of molecular imaging and multimodal imaging examinations, as well as for handling nuclear medicine data research that requires strict quantification. The multimodal tumor tracking software can simultaneously load multiple sets of imaging data for comparison, and automatically segment and quantitatively calculate target lesions, efficiently monitoring changes in disease status.

Advanced Cardiac Imaging Quantitative Analysis and Fusion Software is specifically designed for comprehensive analysis in cardiac nuclear medicine and automatically generates structured reports. It not only fuses coronary artery trees from cardiac angiography with molecular perfusion images but also correlates vascular stenosis with perfusion defects, identifies myocardial risk areas, and provides additional prognostic information.

Radiology Smart Assistant

Philips Diagnostic X-ray Unveils New AI Quality Control Software Platform Radiology Smart Assistant at RSNA. It is an AI-based solution that improves the accuracy of chest radiography in radiology departments by automatically analyzing and adjusting exposure parameters, image contrast, and other parameters. It also features Philips' unique Bone Suppression Image function, which does not alter the workflow or increase the patient’s radiation dose. A single routine chest X-ray can produce both a standard chest image and a lung soft tissue image. Additionally, it assists doctors by providing diagnostic support for clinical images of conditions such as pneumothorax, emphysema, and tuberculosis, enhancing the diagnostic quality of the images.

Azurion FlexArm

Advanced Aerial Robotic Angiography System Azurion FlexArm, Suitable for Cardiovascular, Cerebrovascular, Oncology, and Neuro-interventional Procedures. It not only incorporates the cutting-edge FlexArm technology but also features an ultra-agile aerial robotic arm design that meets positioning needs across various surgical procedures, greatly enhancing surgical precision and ensuring patient safety. Successful and exemplary cases have already been established.

03

Siemens

Siemens MRI is committed to medical innovation and brings the latest innovative products and technologies to the RSNA every year, and this year is no exception. Its revolutionary magnetic resonance technology—Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting (MRF)—shines at the RSNA venue.

Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting (MRF) uses data imaging magnetic resonance equipment to directly acquire quantitative data of human tissues, which is expected to transform traditional magnetic resonance diagnostic methods. When collecting imaging data from different devices and different patients, it demonstrates high accuracy, stability, and reproducibility, making it highly suitable for high-precision scientific research, data mining, and artificial intelligence analysis.

NAEOTOM Alpha

NAEOTOM Alpha is the world's first photon-counting CT, which received FDA 510(k) clearance on September 30, 2021. The FDA even made the rare statement that "NAEOTOM Alpha represents the first major technological breakthrough in CT imaging in over a decade."

Based on the revolutionary direct signal conversion of its QuantaMax detector, NAEOTOM Alpha provides high-resolution images with minimal dose, delivers spectral information with each scan, and offers improved contrast with reduced noise. Unlike conventional CT that detects integrated X-ray energy signals, photon-counting CT generates diagnostic images through direct readings of every incoming X-ray photon, eliminating electronic noise and energy mixing to authentically restore the original information of the substance.

In November 2022, Siemens Healthineers launched two groundbreaking magnetic resonance imaging scanners, the 3T Magnetom Cima.X and the 7T Magnetom Terra.X.

MAGNETOM Terra.X

MAGNETOM Terra.X, as the next-generation 7T MRI, is equipped with the all-new "Ultra IQ Technology," enabling high-resolution imaging of body parts, including the head, which aids in detecting small lesions. Its imaging goes beyond mere anatomical structures, visualizing processes such as metabolism within the body, allowing for better observation of substances other than water, like sodium, under high magnetic fields.

MAGNETOM Cima.X

Magnetom Cima.X is the most powerful 3T MRI system Siemens has ever produced. With a gradient amplitude of 200mT/m and a slew rate of 200T/m/s, it is 2.5 times higher than other products on the market. Such high gradients enable better observation of neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, and allow for clearer visualization of microstructures, playing a crucial role in deepening the understanding of diseases.

ACUSON Sequoia

ACUSON Sequoia is Siemens Healthineers' first ultra-high-end flagship ultrasound system produced in China. It features the industry's most advanced BioAcoustic bioacoustic imaging technology platform, offering qualitative and quantitative diagnostic value in determining the nature of benign and malignant lesions as well as evaluating the efficacy of tumor ablation and chemotherapy, fundamentally addressing bioacoustic variations.

In addition, InFocus full-focus coherent imaging is adopted to enhance focus, spatial resolution, and contrast resolution. The modality comparison function allows users to compare images from other modalities for rapid identification of organ or pathological issues. Clinically, it offers 10 times greater tissue suppression, twice the signal sensitivity, requires half the contrast agent dosage, and extends contrast delay time by two-fold compared to other commercially available ultrasound systems. The ACUSON Sequoia obtained its registration certificate on November 19, 2021, and production license on January 13, 2022.

04

Canon Medical

Since its founding in 1930, Canon Medical has consistently leveraged cutting-edge technology and a keen understanding of clinical needs to continuously iterate and deliver products that better meet user demands. It provides high-quality, high-value medical equipment that is indispensable to modern healthcare, serving users around the world.

Based on decades of technical accumulation, Canon Medical has developed several MRI-specific technologies, such as DLR-AiCE deep learning reconstruction, high-definition lung imaging, high-definition 4D blood flow imaging, high-definition coronary artery imaging, and "Firefly" imaging. These innovations deliver multiple values by advancing both clinical applications and scientific research. Beyond the exhibition booth, the value of these technologies has been widely validated by numerous user research teams.

This time, Canon Medical, as a globally leading well-known medical enterprise, was also invited to participate in the exhibition, showcasing its meaningful innovative product portfolio in the fields of radiology, cardiovascular imaging systems (including CT, MR, molecular imaging, ultrasound, interventional, fixed and mobile X-ray solutions).

Aplio i Series

At the ultrasound front, the Aplio i series exhibited by Canon Medical was one of the star products at this grand event. The Aplio i series is equipped with Canon's unique ultrasound technologies such as Shear Wave Dispersion Imaging (SWD), Attenuation Imaging (ATI), and Superb Microvascular Imaging (SMI). While assisting in clinical diagnosis, it also provides significant value for users' scientific research explorations.

The all-new generation of the Zhihui i platform architecture adopts the innovative iBeam forming intelligent beamformer, iDMS intelligent dynamic micro-slice technology, and powerful ultra-high-speed multi-channel parallel composite data processing technology. This new generation of technology has brought about a revolution in ultrasound platform architecture, taking ultrasound image quality and clinical applications to an unprecedented new level. It helps clinicians confidently face various new challenges in current and future clinical applications, highlighting the unique charm of Canon's new flagship ultrasound system.

DLR-AiCE

In recent years, deep learning methods have been successfully applied in fields such as computer vision and natural language processing, achieving breakthrough progress. In the magnetic resonance field, deep learning has demonstrated faster and better performance than traditional methods in improving scanning speed, ultra-high resolution, and denoising.

Canon Medical, as the world's first to launch the DLR-AiCE imaging system based on deep learning artificial intelligence technology, has blazed a new trail, broadened horizons, set new trends, broken through traditional ways of thinking, and become the vital source of prosperity in the industry. AiCE uses deep learning reconstruction technology to remove noise from images and has now been translated into clinical practice, providing excellent image quality across various clinical applications.

Canon Medical collects high-quality training images, comprehensively considering various types of noise that may appear in clinical scans, and provides excellent training data to the deep convolutional neural network (DCNN), enabling it to reconstruct high-quality images from low signal-to-noise ratio images. AiCE can also effectively handle various variations in MR clinical images caused by scanning parameters, sequence design, scanned body parts, and field strength differences. To achieve this, an important step for AiCE is to distinguish between high and low frequencies during the denoising process—keeping the low-frequency portion to ensure image contrast remains unaffected while denoising the high-frequency portion. This allows AiCE to cover 96% of MR applications.

UTE Lung Imaging

Lung Imaging Poses a Significant Challenge for Traditional Proton-Based MRI. Canon Medical Breaks Through Conventional MR Technology Limitations with the Launch of UTE Lung Imaging. Utilizing Ultra-Short Echo Sequences to Capture Signals from Ultra-Short T2 Tissues, it Delivers a Distinct Clinical Experience Featuring Free-Breathing, High-Resolution, and High Signal-to-Noise Ratio Lung Imaging. It is the First in the Industry to Receive NMPA Certification. Canon Medical’s UTE Technology Leads the Way in Illuminating the "Dark Areas" of the Lungs.

Different from traditional magnetic resonance imaging: the TE time from RF pulse excitation to echo signal generation is relatively long, greater than 0.4ms; UTE acquires signals immediately after RF pulse (hard pulse of half RF pulse) excitation, with a very short TE time, less than 0.1ms. The UTE sequence makes full use of the FID signal, filling the K-space center outward in a three-dimensional radial trajectory, which can also effectively avoid motion artifacts.

mUTE 4D MRA Brain Vascular Imaging

mUTE can accurately evaluate the vascular lumen: The conventional gradient echo FFE3D sequence, due to its long TE, causes proton dephasing in the blood during acquisition, resulting in uneven blood signals and inaccurate assessment. mUTE, with TE at the microsecond level, significantly reduces the effect of proton dephasing, allowing for an accurate reflection of the lumen condition.

mUTE Evaluation of Postoperative Vascular Recanalization: Short TE Time, Special K-Space Filling Method, Effectively Reduces Susceptibility Artifacts, Avoids Impact of Metal Artifacts.

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This year, RSNA has added more content featuring debates, real-time interactions, and hands-on operation opportunities. In the coming days, more companies will share the latest research achievements across various fields, and Instrument Family will continue to keep an eye on RSNA 2022.