Hologic Inc. - Product News

An All Digital Breast Care Center

A primary component of Elkhart General's most ambitious expansion project in 100 years

2002 was a big year for Elkhart General Hospital, a 367-bed hospital in Northern Indiana. That was the year this community hospital made the commitment to provide focused and specialized, convenient and accessible care to the women of its community. An expansion project was planned - the biggest in the hospital's 100-year history. A new sixty-four million dollar West Wing would be built to include a state of the art Breast Imaging Center. The Center would serve as a key element of the comprehensive new facility.

"We knew the future of breast imaging would involve digital mammography," said Dr. Samir Patel, Vice-Chairman of Radiology at Elkhart, "and with the building of the new breast center, we decided to transition from film-screen to digital all at once."

The Decision To Go With Hologic

The decision to convert from analog to digital came after months of thorough evaluation of the available technologies. In the end, Elkhart chose the Hologic SeleniaT digital mammography system to replace the three analog systems they had been using. Four critical areas led them to choose the Selenia systems: image quality, workflow, connectivity, and better patient care.

Because the images require little or no manipulation, physician workflow has seen significant improvement as well. Dr. Patel says that the time required for interventional procedures such as needle localizations has been cut in half thanks to the digital technology.

Connectivity

Interfacing with the mammography reporting system, voice-recognition dictation and teleradiology systems already in place at the Breast Center was not a problem due to the collaborative effort between Hologic and the Hospital Information Technology Department. And the seamless transfer of information with the new digital technology reduced the need for printing and delivering films, ultimately affecting the bottom line. Looking to the future, the Selenia systems blend very easily with the upgrades available through a variety of PACS vendors.

Better Patient Care

Another factor for the hospital choosing the Selenia system was the large field of view of the Hologic detector - the largest in the industry.

"Hologic has the best detector configuration for patients of all breast sizes," said Kiendl. "The detector of the other digital mammography vendors can not easily accommodate women with larger breast sizes. Having to take multiple exposures to image larger breasted women would result in increased exam time, greater radiation dose, and significantly decreased productivity. With Selenia we were able to provide better service for women of all breast sizes."

The Transition

As a busy and comprehensive breast imaging center, Elkhart needed to make their transition from analog to digital with little interruption to the consistency and quality of their product. This meant integrating both installation and training of the technologists and radiologists, all while maintaining a complete analog schedule.

"Without Hologic's support," says Dr.Lamont, staff Radiologist at the Breast Center, "this transition would never have happened."

Having the new building available meant that the department could install the digital units without interrupting the workflow of the old system. That still left, however, the training of the staff - the equivalent of nine full time technologists and nine radiologists.

Hologic sent in a team of three training specialists to conduct parallel trainings. One worked with Dr. Patel and the radiologists, while two worked with the technologists. The entire department was trained in ten days, with the schedule back at full speed in one week.

"Hologic's application specialists were excellent," says Roma Green.

"What they were able to do in the space of time available was nothing short of amazing," states Kiendl. "It was a very clean transition that was nearly transparent to both our referring physicians and our patients. We could not have done this with any other manufacturer. This was truly a collaborative effort between Hologic, Elkhart General Hospital Administration, PACS/IT personnel, technologists and radiologists. I could not have envisioned a smoother transition to digital mammography."

The Future

The new Selenia systems have positioned Elkhart General's Breast Care Center to enjoy increased growth without increased stress. "We purposely replaced all three of our analog units with three digital systems," says Dr. Patel, "so that we could handle the expected growth. Even at the current rates of volume increase, we will be able to continue to grow without having to purchase an additional machine in the foreseeable future."

Elkhart General Hospital is looking beyond the immediate future, however, to technology that will revolutionize mammography: digital breast tomosynthesis. Given the outstanding experience of going digital with Selenia, the site is hoping Hologic will select Elkhart as a beta site for their new tomosynthesis technology.

Director Kiendl smiles at the thought. "We offer the most comprehensive and state of the art breast imaging technology to the women of our area. We want to keep it that way."