Baylor University Medical Center First in US to Acquire Combination BrainSUITE(R) iMRI and GE Healthcare MR Surgical Suite
DALLAS, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- BrainLAB and GE Healthcare today announced the purchase of a fully integrated workflow-optimized neurosurgical operating room (OR) combining the BrainSUITE(R) iMRI and GE Healthcare MR Surgical Suite by Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. The suite will feature image-guided surgery (IGS), intra-operative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (iMRI), and visualization and data management technology.
Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas (Baylor Dallas) will be the first hospital in the US to implement this technically advanced neurosurgery OR suite from BrainLAB and GE Healthcare, equipped with a high-definition 1.5T Magnetic Resonance (MR) scanner. The installation will be completed in early 2009 and neurosurgeons on the medical staff at Baylor Dallas plan to begin treating patients in April 2009.
The technically advanced OR suite at Baylor Dallas will consist of two rooms: a dedicated neurosurgery OR and a conjoined neuroradiology room with a Signa(R) 1.5T HDx MRI scanner. The integration of the two rooms will allow neurosurgeons to verify resection of a brain tumor by using iMRI during surgery, before concluding the surgery.
The BrainSUITE iMRI navigation system links the operating room with real- time, intra-operative images of the brain from the MRI scanner with the spatial position of the surgical instruments, providing the surgeon with a more accurate representation of the tumor's location, facilitating the removal of diseased tissue.
In one study using iMRI, 36 percent of surgical procedures initially considered complete were continued in order to remove residual tumor tissue.**
This initial collaboration between BrainLAB and GE will provide an innovative design of the suite which will assist doctors throughout the surgical process. The suite's integration software from BrainLAB improves surgical workflow and enables access to and manipulation of patient data and intra-operative images. Connecting the two rooms is an advanced transport system that allows patients to be moved from OR to MR and back during surgery, or minimally invasive procedures. The suite can be used as a stand-alone MR imaging center, when not being used for surgery.
"BrainSUITE iMRI advanced neurosurgical OR technology, combined with the Signa 1.5T HDx MR system from GE Healthcare, provides Baylor Dallas with additional advanced technology to offer patients more effective neurosurgical treatments," said Hartmut Warnken, Division Director, Integrated OR Solutions, BrainLAB.
"The GE and BrainLAB collaboration will provide Baylor Dallas with advanced technology in order to improve clinical capabilities and better assist doctors with treatment and diagnosis, for personalized healthcare," said Jim Davis, VP of GE Healthcare Global MRI business. "We are excited to provide the company's 1.5 T HDx system as a part of the GE MR Surgical Suite."
About BrainLAB
BrainLAB develops, manufactures and markets software-driven medical technology that enables procedures that are more precise, less invasive, and therefore less expensive than traditional treatments. Among the core products are image-guided systems that provide highly accurate real-time information used for navigation during surgical procedures. This utility has been further expanded to serve as a computer terminal for physicians to more effectively access and interpret diagnostic scans and other digital medical information for better informed decisions. BrainLAB solutions allow expansion from a single system to operating suites to digitally integrated hospitals covering all subspecialties from neurosurgery, orthopedics, ENT, CMF to spine & trauma and oncology. With more than 3000 systems installed in over 70 countries, BrainLAB is a market leader in image-guided technology. The privately held BrainLAB group, founded in 1989, is headquartered in Munich, Germany and today employs around 1000 people in 16 offices across Europe, Asia, Australia, North and South America.
For more information, visit BrainLAB at http://www.brainlab.com.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.
GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre- symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company . Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at http://www.gehealthcare.com.
Disclaimer
Physicians are members of the medical staff at one of Baylor Health Care System's community medical centers and are neither employees nor agents of those medical centers, Baylor University Medical Center or Baylor Health Care System.
**Nimsky C, Fujita, A, et. al.: Volumetric assessment of glioma removal by intra-operative high-field magnetic resonance imaging. Neurosurgery 55:1-12, 2004
CONTACT: Kate Franco of BrainLAB, +1-708-486-1915,
kate.franco@brainlab.com; or Arvind Gopalratnam of GE Healthcare,
+1-262-501-0777, Arvind.Gopalratnam@ge.com; or Maria Carpenter of Baylor
University Medical Center, +1-214-820-4827, MariaCa@BaylorHealth.edu
Web site: http://www.brainlab.com/
http://www.gehealthcare.com/
http://www.ims-chi.com/