Hitachi at AHRA 2017
Patient centric imaging requires a focus on comfort which is impacted by both scan length and modality design. Traditional systems did not take into account body habitus and provided poor image quality. Hitachi Healthcare Americas has designed modalities with the patient in mind. Hitachi demonstrated its portfolio of CT, MR and US products at the American Hospital Radiology Administrators 45th Annual Meeting and Exposition in Anaheim, CA July 9-12.
The Sophia 3D Breast Ultrasound grabbed much attention as attendees could get up close and personal with the device on the booth. Over 1000 administrators came to California to learn more about the advances in medical imaging and were not disappointed. Hitachi was able to participate in many activities throughout the week and drove great attendance to the booth.
Hitachi sponsored Dr. Lawrence Tanenbaum’s morning breakfast symposium on Patient Centric MR Imaging. Over 200 people attended this talk and earned CME credits at the same time. Attendees walked away with a better understanding of how market forces are impacting today’s radiology departments; how Hitachi’s modern open MRI systems align with value-based care and are changing the way imaging facilities do business; and innovative imaging strategies for imaging programs to succeed in population health management. Dr. Tanenbaum’s entire talk with be posted on Hitachi Healthcare’s YouTube channel.
Hitachi also hosted an exclusive focus group comprised of 13 radiology department administrators from different hospitals and departments to better understand the challenges facing administrators today. Specific focus was on the use of analytics, the impacts of MACRA and other obstacles that their departments are facing. Collaboration between all of the participants led to some great sharing of ideas and information.
It was at AHRA 2017 that Hitachi also announced it has pledged $250,000 to the AHRA Education Foundation as part of the Defining the Future campaign. The AHRA Education Foundation (EF), in cooperation with the AHRA, obtains and provides resources to enhance the effectiveness of imaging and healthcare disciplines.
Hitachi participated in the AHRA Hot Spot competition where members names were drawn from a “popup” draw, announced just minutes before the draw. People ran from all over the exhibit floor to participate. We also donated a Hitachi Tool Kit for the AHRA Foundation raffle to round out the week of activities.
Special mention should go out to the awardees of the AHRA Annual Meeting Scholarship who were able to attend the meeting through the sponsorship from Hitachi. We hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did!
The week ended with a beach party to celebrate the week’s learning and where better than California to dress like a lifeguard.
And finally, as a giveaway we offered attendees the chance to learn more about EMIEW, Hitachi’s prototype service robot. EMIEW stands for Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate and was developed as part of Hitachi's efforts to create a service robot with diverse communication functions that could safely coexist with humans while conducting necessary services.
