In a practice of Valley’s size, optimized workflow is a must. “Now that we have gone through the connectivity process, we don’t have to enter patient data by hand anymore. We just click on the worklist, click on the patient’s name, and Discovery populates all of the demographics and the biography of the patient,” Tammy said.

She is particularly impressed with the system’s automatic data import feature, which compares prior scans to current ones. “Before we had to do all of the conversion math by hand. We used to have to figure out the area and the bone mineral content to come up with the bone mineral density and then convert it (there’s a conversion factor for each manufacturer) and then we’d use that conversion formula and do our comparison. It was a lengthy math process that of course has room for human error, and now it’s all done electronically for us. That’s awesome.”

Recently, Valley Radiologists began to add Hologic Discovery A bone densitometers to their practice. The Discovery A has the same patient spine, hip, and whole body scanning capabilities as the Discovery W model, but Discovery A also includes a rotating C-arm that allows a true 90-degree lateral scan of the thoracic and lumbar spine for vertebral fracture assessment. With non-rotating systems, the patient has to roll on their side, which may not always be easy or comfortable for a geriatric patient. With the Discovery A’s exclusive rotating capability, the tube head rotates instead of the patient.

Valley’s Goodyear and Northwest Glendale offices, which are in the west part of metropolitan Phoenix, serve a largely geriatric population - approximately 70 percent of the patients in these areas are over 55. It is more relaxing for geriatric patients knowing they can remain on their back with no discomfort and yet get better vertebral fracture information. “Being able to do supine lateral imaging without moving the patient is a real feather in our cap,” Tammy explained.

An added plus of the vertebral fracture assessment on the Hologic Discovery A is the ability to visualize abdominal aortic calcifications, which are strongly associated with cardiovascular disease. AAC is a particularly valuable measurement since it correlates with traditional clinical risk factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, and age to the prediction of heart attack risk.

An added plus of the vertebral fracture assessment on the Hologic Discovery is the ability to visualize aortic calcifications, which are strongly associated with cardiovascular disease

Tammy has seen the Discovery A system increase patient throughput without sacrificing precision.