December 9, 2011 — Maquet announced Thursday it has restructured its U.S. Sales and Services Unit to meet the broader needs of customers across all areas of clinical care. As part of this restructuring, the company now offers a comprehensive disease therapy team dedicated to servicing customers who are building a hybrid operating room (OR).

December 9, 2011 — The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) and the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists (SCA) have released a new performance guideline for heightening the use of ultrasound in guided vascular cannulation. The process involves the insertion of a catheter, or tube, into a major vein or artery. The guideline also contains recommendations on training for these life-saving procedures.

December 8, 2011 — Speckle training echocardiography (STE) is the subject of two studies being presented at EUROECHO 2011, Dec. 7-10 in Budapest, Hungary. They compare STE, a recent echocardiography technique, with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in quantifying infarct size (IS) after ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). MRI is the current gold standard for IS quantification.

December 8, 2011 — A new survey released by the Siemens Radiation Reduction Alliance (SIERRA) reveals awareness and familiarity with medical imaging tests lead to clearer decisions for United States adults about their healthcare. The survey — released at RSNA 2011 — was conducted in response to increased scrutiny over medical imaging scans and the use of radiation.

December 7, 2011 — At RSNA 2011, Siemens Healthcare is unveiling the Somatom Perspective. It is the first computed tomography (CT) scanner to offer the eMode software solution, which helps determine the best correlation between dose, efficiency and image quality; it can also adjust the required scan parameters automatically.