Mirada Medical's Blog

Workflow

Workflow is a word that comes up in every discussion regarding medical software.  We are often asked questions like:  how will this fit into my workflow and how will this improve my workflow.  At Mirada Medical, we do not provide software solutions, but workflow solutions. 

What challenges do hospitals and medical practices face?  They are being pressed to do more in less time.  They want a solution that will help them read more efficiently.  Many need to be able to read from remote locations.  Some do not have room for any more computer towers or monitors in their reading room and need an integrated solution.  Others work closely with Radiation Therapy and need to provide them with critical information regarding patients’ treatments.  Many attend tumor boards and find preparation for this tedious.  They also need to share their results with the referring physicians. 

These needs play a significant role when looking to purchase new software.  At Mirada, we not only provide software solutions, but workflow solutions.  Sometimes the software itself is the solution.  XD provides the physicians an efficient way to interpret both single and multi time point exams.  CDs with a robust DICOM viewer can be burned to share the study with the referring physician.   In addition, it allows the radiologists to provide the Radiation Therapy Department with additional information for patient treatment.  Our Casemeeting software provides an efficient, robust platform for Tumor Board preparation and presentation. 

Sometimes, the deployment option is the workflow solution the customer needs.  Many desire fewer workstations, so integration on PACS and Advanced Visualization platforms is an option.  For those that need to read from various locations, we offer both thin client and floating license options. 

So, if you are in the market for a Workflow Solution, or want to learn more about our product line, check us out @ www.Mirada-medical.com.

 

About the Author

Jennifer Miller is the US Support Manager at Mirada Medical Ltd.  Jenn is a registered nuclear medicine technologist with 8 years of clinical experience in various settings, and 7 years of industry experience.

About Mirada Medical

Mirada Medical is an internationally recognised brand in advanced medical imaging. The company develops high value clinical software applications, which are used across diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, tumour board and elsewhere.

 

The opinions expressed in this blog represent the views of the author and not necessarily those of Mirada Medical Limited.

Mirada Medical

 

Hybrid Scanners vs. Software

Over the years it has been very interesting to watch the evolution of hybrid PET/CT scanners become the gold standard in PET imaging.   When I first started in this business almost ten years ago I worked for a mobile PET company whose entire fleet was PET only.   This unfortunately was the company’s downfall, as any new customer required PET/CT.  At the time we tried to patch the outdated fleet with a software solution and some early image registration tools.  Unfortunately, the industry seemed to reject software as a substitute for hybrid imaging.  

Today with PET/MR on the forefront, it will be very interesting to see if software will get a second look as a substitute to an investment into a full PET/MR scanner.  There is no doubt MR can bring so much to the table in the world of PET imaging and top institutions will want to make the investment.  Given these difficult economic times though, the majority of institutions will be unable to afford the investment.  Could high powered computer algorithms and slick display protocols be the answer this time around?   Only time will tell how much this will catch on.   Personally, I think there are so many good arguments for software solutions in this arena this time around.   Let the new PET/MR hybrids blaze the trail for ultimately giving the best information with certain types of cancers, neuro imaging and cardiovascular imaging, but when applicable, let software provide a solution, especially if it is the only solution.

 

About the Author

Greg Janik is the Senior Product Specialist at Mirada Medical Ltd.

About Mirada Medical

Mirada Medical is an internationally recognised brand in advanced medical imaging. The company develops high value clinical software applications, which are used across diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, tumour board and elsewhere.

 

The opinions expressed in this blog represent the views of the author and not necessarily those of Mirada Medical Limited.

Customer Service and Support

 Generally, I do not look forward to contacting a company’s customer service department, and I am sure others would agree.  I do not relish the automated systems through which you can never seem to press the correct button.  Then, if you have managed to successfully navigate that, you are put on hold.  While on hold, there is usually some terrible music to endure.  As if that isn’t bad enough, periodically a mechanical voice interrupts the music to inform you that your call is very important to them and to please continue to hold.

At Mirada, we take into account all the things we dislike about various customer service protocols.  We have no automated systems to navigate and no elevator music.  You usually get to speak to one of us on the first attempt, or get a call back very quickly.  In addition, we have various methods of contacting us  including  our toll free telephone number, our website, and e-mail.  This allows our customers to use the most convenient method for them.

What does customer support mean to us?  We aim to not only meet, but to exceed customer expectations.  This begins in the sales process.  If questions are answered in an efficient, detailed and friendly manner, it helps us gain your trust.  We strive to instill our culture of the “Mirada way” in all aspects of our business.  If customers feel taken care of prior to purchasing, that builds confidence that we will continue to provide that same level of support throughout the installation, training and ongoing support process.  Building this relationship is very important to us.  It is one of trust, respect, and understanding. 

Who are our customers?  They are vendors who sell our product, institutions who have purchased our products, and ultimately the patients whose exams are being interpreted with our software.  So know that we are here to help.  Call us, email us, check out our website.  No elevator music.  We promise.

 

About the Author

Jennifer Miller is the US Support Manager at Mirada Medical Ltd. Jenn is a registered nuclear medicine technologist with 8 years of clinical experience in various settings, and 7 years of industry experience.

About Mirada Medical

Mirada Medical is an internationally recognised brand in advanced medical imaging. The company develops high value clinical software applications, which are used across diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, tumour board and elsewhere.

 

The opinions expressed in this blog represent the views of the author and not necessarily those of Mirada Medical Limited.

Theories on Jet-lag

Healthcare is a global industry. Mirada Medical has customers in Europe, North America and Asia. It is inevitable that from time to time I need to travel to visit and meet these customers.

Earlier this month I was on a flight from London to Washington, DC, travelling to an industry  conference. I overheard a woman sitting to my left discussing with a travelling companion her theory for avoiding jet-lag. The trick, she said, was to eat at the mealtimes of the destination time zone as early as possible  - in her case, she had ceased UK conventions the previous day, adopting instead the mealtimes of her US destination city.

Frequent fliers will have heard such theories on jet-lag before. “Drink plenty of water” is a popular (and relatively effective)  one. “Force yourself to stay up until normal bedtime” is another. Medicinal use of melatonin is another widely advocated but as yet inconclusively evidenced remedy for jet-lag.  ABC News reported in May 2007 that Viagra might be effective, though the evidence here was based on a study of non-travelling hamsters. And William Gibson (through the character Damien in Pattern Recognition) proposes that jet-lag actually is caused by the inability of the soul to keep up with the plane so when you land in London your soul is still out over the ocean and you just have to wait for it to catch up with you, like an item of lost luggage. There are plenty of theories. 

So here’s mine: don’t get on the plane. All of my own jet-lag inducing air travel is work related. At Mirada we develop state of the art software solutions for today’s problems in clinical diagnostics and treatment management. A part of this is the development of remote reading solutions including server and cloud based image analysis and reporting. We can successfully set up online diagnostics at the most advanced level.  We can fuse PET images with MRI images.  We can develop deformable registration algorithms which leading radiation oncologists agree successfully register the toughest prostate or head & neck MRI images with CT. So why  in 2011 do I need an airplane every time I want to engage with a customer? Sometimes I do, but mostly I do not.

Ubiquitous online meeting tools such as Webex, Gotomeeting or my current favourite TeamViewer allow me to demonstrate Mirada’s advanced multi-modality image analysis capabilities from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world. Mirada’s service & support team are 100% set up to provide any current or prospective customer with full product service, demonstrations and evaluations using web connections and online conferencing tools. And with a with a grateful nod to Skype, I can now enjoy long conversations with customers in far flung places without paying my mobile operator’s punitive $2 per minute charges for making international calls – such charges can make the air ticket the more economic option!

Meeting people face to face is important, fun, and essential to the development of strong relationships. But many trips can be avoided and there are good economic and environmental reasons for doing so. Importantly, there are also very good reasons of personal health and well-being for not getting on that plane like, for example, the avoidance of jet-lag. 

 

About the Author

Hugh Bettesworth is Chief Executive of Mirada Medical Ltd.       

About Mirada Medical

Mirada Medical is an internationally recognised brand in advanced medical imaging.

The company develops high value clinical software applications, which are used across diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, tumour board and elsewhere.

 

The opinions expressed in this blog represent the views of the author and not necessarily those of Mirada Medical Limited

Virtual Vs. Traditional Tradeshows

Technical exhibits are an important forum for companies such as ours in the medical imaging community, to showcase our latest products and discuss technology trends with industry professionals. The Mirada Medical team demonstrates a suite of oncology imaging solutions at leading medical imaging conferences throughout the world.

A recent development in the tradeshow industry is the introduction of virtual conferences. Market Research Media predicts that the virtual conference and trade show market will show an annual growth rate of 56% until 2015. Perhaps you have already attended such a conference with companies such as Aunt Minnie and Medic Exchange? Virtual conferences provide an alternative platform for attending keynote sessions, lectures and technical demonstrations. With a recent surge of development in virtual-meeting software, a typical virtual conference will contain many similar features to a traditional tradeshow, including areas such as the auditorium and exhibit hall.  Attendees can navigate around this virtual conference at the click of a button.

There are substantial advantages for both attendees and exhibitors attending virtual conferences. In particular, the convenience of being able to attend talks and exhibits straight from your computer will save time and money for busy industry professionals. With first time attendees registering and providing contact details, lead collection for exhibitors is simple and efficient.  As Mirada products such as XD3 are software only computer based devices, giving demonstrations across a virtual booth is very straightforward. An infinite number of attendees are able to view a demonstration simultaneously, with no limitations presented by the physical boundaries of a traditional booth.

There are of course aspects of traditional tradeshows that cannot be replicated in a virtual environment; our exhibitors would refer to this as the tradeshow ‘Buzz’. The hype, which is generated from a gathering of industry professionals discussing new technology trends, cannot be replicated to the same degree in a virtual format. That said, it seems that there is place for both types of conference in the medical imaging industry. I sincerely hope that the tradeshow industry does not resolve to an ‘either-or’ opinion for traditional and virtual events, as both formats provide useful platforms for industry professionals and companies alike.

 

About the Author

Faye Murray is the Customer Relations Executive at Mirada Medical Ltd.

About Mirada Medical

Mirada Medical is an internationally recognised brand in advanced medical imaging. The company develops high value clinical software applications, which areused across diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, tumour board and elsewhere.

 

The opinions expressed in this blog represent the views of the author and not necessarily those of Mirada Medical Limited.

Mirada Medical at SNM 2011, San Antonio, Texas

The annual Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting took place this past weekend in San Antonio, Texas.  This meeting brings together nuclear medicine and molecular imaging professionals from around the world so as to keep them up to date on the latest imaging and therapy methods, as well as to allow for them to observe and test new products and technologies.  

As I looked forward to the upcoming SNM meeting, I became even more excited about this opportunity to share with the rest of the imaging world what we at Mirada Medical have been designing. In particular, our products to assist reading physicians by providing them even more useful and innovative tools with which to interpret their studies AND to assist these same physicians in presenting these studies to their colleagues at tumor board meetings in a much more efficient, robust, and collaborative format.  This excitement was further fueled by my observation on the SNM’s own website, an image from last year’s meeting having Mirada’s booth in the right forefront.

 

SNM 2010 photo, Mirada Medical booth in right forefront (from SNM 2011 meeting website)

We were really pleased with the number of visitors we received, especially during lunch hours and breaks between sessions.  We could barely cope. We kept half an eye on our competitors’ booths, and I was pleased that by Tuesday I could count a noticeable difference in the constant activity in our booth when compared to others.

 Visitors to the Mirada booth were on the whole very impressed with the fusion capabilities of our new XD3.4 version of software. Allowing both gated CT and PET data to display multiple time points while still maintaining the ability to observe the gating motion while slicing through the data in real time AND having the ability to re-orient the data while the gates are still being observed.  Still others were very interested in the ability to register unlimited time points, but even more so, to have this function perform automatically – both with rigid and deformable fusion.   All of our visitors also liked the simple usability and configurability of our software, even one person who is currently a staunch supporter and long-time user of our main competitor’s software.  This person left our booth commenting to a colleague on some of the major advantages of our system. PERCIST was another topic of interest for some of our research and luminary visitors, since there are not many options out there for clinicians and researchers to utilize this fairly new technique. 

Of all of our products however, Casemeeting definitely was the star of the show.  We received  great comments and praise from booth visitors, with many luminary sites showing interest in Casemeeting – knowing how much time this product could potentially save them in case preparation, as well as how much it has the potential to greatly impact the efficiency of the workflow of the tumor board process itself.

From the Saturday evening opening reception through the conference close for exhibitors at 5pm on Tuesday, Mirada Medical exhibited just inside the main doors of the exhibition hall at booth #4027.  Eleven of Mirada Medical’s staff were on hand to demonstrate the XD3 software, Casemeeting, and Caseaccess.  We were very pleased with our booth’s activity during this SNM meeting.

 

About the Author

Doug Philip is a registered radiography, nuclear medicine, and PET technologist currently working as a Product Specialist at Mirada Medical Inc.  He has six years of experience as a nuclear medicine and PET technologist in a university hospital and research environment and eight years of experience in the medical device industry.

About Mirada Medical

Mirada Medical is an internationally recognised brand in advanced medical imaging. The company develops high value clinical software applications, which are used across diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, tumour board and elsewhere.

 

The opinions expressed in this blog represent the views of the author and not necessarily those of Mirada Medical Limited.

Risk Management

One of the main concerns for Regulatory bodies around the world, when assessing medical devices, is the potential for those devices to cause harm to patients or users. This is true for all types of medical device from syringes to medical imaging devices such as Mirada XD3. Therefore risk management is one of the main focuses for quality standards (such as ISO 13485:2003) that relate to the manufacture of Medical Devices.

For manufacturers the first task is to first identify points of potential failure with the device that could cause harm or reduce the effectiveness of the device. Once identified, risks have to be quantified by assessing the severity and probability of the potential hazard occurring.

The calculation of severity of harm in Medical devices depends, to a large extent, on the intended use of the device and the context in which they are used. A software guided robotic scalpel is inherently more potentially hazardous than imaging software used as part of a wider diagnostic process, such as Mirada XD3. 

Once an assessment is made, mitigations to reduce risk can be identified. Risks can be designed out by altering the design of the device such that the potential point of failure identified no longer exists; additional protective measures can be designed in to a device to counter the effects of a potential point of failure or risks can be reduced by including warnings to alert users to the potential points of failure.

To illustrate this process, the potential failure for a bicycle is the rider falling off because of its inherent instability. The hazard severity for this occurrence can be very high if the rider were to hit their head. The probability of this depends on several factors but can also be relatively high.

To manage this risk, the bicycle could be designed with four wheels instead of two. This would design out the risk completely, but it would no longer be a bicycle. Instead, the design could be altered to include stabilizers. This would certainly reduce the probability of falling off, but would not reduce the potential severity of a fall. Finally the manufacturer of the bicycle can advise riders to wear a cycling helmet which would reduce the severity of the risk occurring.

 

About the Author

Gwilym Owen is the Quality and Regulatory Manager for Mirada Medical Ltd.

About Mirada Medical

Mirada Medical is an internationally recognised brand in advanced medical imaging. The company develops high value clinical software applications, which are used across diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, tumour board and elsewhere.

 

The opinions expressed in this blog represent the views of the author and not necessarily those of Mirada Medical Limited.

Venturefest and the Martin and Audrey Wood Enterprise Awards

Last week Mirada attended Venturefest, a business-networking event based in Oxfordshire.

The Venturefest event took place at the Said Business School, Oxford University. The main entrance of this establishment provided an area for cutting-edge businesses in oxford to share their products at the ‘innovative showcase’. Mirada was able to demonstrate the latest version of its flagship image fusion product, XD3. Although Venturefest attendees came from a mix of specialty backgrounds, the topic of cancer diagnostic support was of interest to all who stopped by our exhibit. The Venturefest event provided Mirada with a unique opportunity to review our success over the last two years and share this with local businesses in Oxfordshire.

Venturefest also played host to the annual Martin and Audrey Wood Enterprise Awards. The Wood Enterprise Awards, founded by of Sir Martin and Lady Audrey Wood (who co-founded Oxford Instruments plc), celebrates entrepreneurs and innovative companies within Oxfordshire.

There are four different award categories including a Medical Devices & Healthcare Technologies category, in which we were very pleased to be nominated.

The three finalists from each category were requested to give a three-minute presentation to a panel of expert judges explaining how their company has developed an innovative technology product. Mirada’s presentation, led by our senior software engineer, focused on our XD3 product and innovative response to the leading trends in healthcare - MR-PET and the Cloud. After the initial presentation, the panel of judges then had the opportunity to question each finalist before judging.

Mirada was extremely proud to win, not only the award for the Medical Devices and Healthcare category, but also to be named the ‘overall winner’ of the Enterprise Awards.

As a company, we are proud of what we do and what we have achieved so it is fantastic to gain the recognition for our contribution to the healthcare industry as well as for being a leading innovator in Oxfordshire.

 

About the Author

Faye Murray is the Customer Relations Executive at Mirada Medical Ltd.

About Mirada Medical

Mirada Medical is an internationally recognised brand in advanced medical imaging. The company develops high value clinical software applications, which are used across diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, tumour board and elsewhere.

 

The opinions expressed in this blog represent the views of the author and not necessarily those of Mirada Medical Limited.

Virtual conferences – is healthcare going digital?

The healthcare industry has been traditionally known to reunite and exchange knowledge and experience at trade shows. The infusion of the new social media channels into our lives has slowly started to show in our profession. Facebook and Twitter, initially forbidden from your workplace computer, are now widely used by companies or hospitals to talk to their customers or patients. Doctors now exchange knowledge on forums and other specialized social networks.

It makes you wonder: what is the next step the industry will take towards digitalizing our communications? Virtual conferences seem to be gaining more ground with companies such as AuntMinnie and Medic Exchange hosting such events online. Medic Exchange announced its next virtual conference in Diagnostic Imaging on June 16th (registration on their website at http://www.medicexchange.com/ ). Mirada Medical will be exhibiting, with scientists and engineers ready to discuss our new PET/CT and PET/MR technologies.

Are traditional trade shows soon to become obsolete or are virtual conferences only a passing fad? Looking at other social media and digital tools, they seem to be heavily adopted by players within the healthcare industry and here to stay. Virtual conferences are mostly free of charge for delegates and, without the need to travel, they will have a much smaller environmental footprint than traditional trade shows (interesting debate at http://medmeeting.blogspot.com/ ). Certainly, virtual conferences are a rising opportunity and a convenient way for healthcare professionals to meet and keep up to date with industry developments - but are they meant to replace traditional trade shows completely?

 

About the Author

Simona Maria Nita is the Digital Marketing Manager at Mirada Medical Ltd.

About Mirada Medical

Mirada Medical is an internationally recognised brand in advanced medical imaging. The company develops high value clinical software applications, which are used across diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, tumour board and elsewhere.

 

The opinions expressed in this blog represent the views of the author and not necessarily those of Mirada Medical Limited.