Radiation Dose Management System Improves Patient Care

A novel web-based management system uses Microsoft cloud technology to track, analyze, and report practice-level radiation dose data.

The GE Healthcare (GE, Little Chalfont, United Kingdom) DoseWatch Explore is a cloud-based radiation dose management software suite that tracks, analyzes, and reports practice-level radiation dose data for GE computed tomography (CT) systems. Using Microsoft Azure cloud technology and GE's InSite connection, DoseWatch Explore collects radiation data directly from the CT scanner; no additional hardware integration, infrastructure, or installation is required.

The dose management solution helps clinicians quantify the CT systems' practice-level radiation dose using protocol parameters determined per exam/per device, enabling the development of individual dose management practices, while at the same time improving patient radiation dose levels during diagnostic imaging procedures. The solution this offers clinicians a new level of data analysis, utilizing familiar, browser-based tools and technology with the scale, cost-efficiency, and ease-of-deployment provided by cloud infrastructure.

“Patient safety is at the heart of dose management and is a big driver for why we created this solution,” said Agnes Berzsenyi, VP and general manager of product management for global services at GE Healthcare. “For healthcare clinicians interested in managing radiation dose for CT, DoseWatch Explore is a perfect entry-level dose management solution that harnesses the power of data, analytics, and software to help clinicians achieve optimal dose levels and provide better patient care.”

“DoseWatch Explore is a great example of how integrated device, software and cloud platform solutions seamlessly work together to deliver practical, actionable insights to health organizations,” said Neil Jordan, general manager of worldwide health at Microsoft. “Azure provides industry-leading security features and complies with a number of global, regional, and industry-specific standards and regulations, enabling providers using DoseWatch Explore to focus on their primary objective – improving patient health.”

New regulatory and accreditation requirements for medical radiation are starting to emerge, but implementing dose management practices and gaining visibility to dose data are still relatively new to clinicians. Healthcare providers are therefore searching for the opportunity to test dose management without compromising image quality.

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