THE WOODLANDS, TX – St. Luke's Lakeside Hospital, based in The Woodlands, Texas, has launched a series of new diagnostic technology at its newly built surgical hospital.

Clinical staff at the new facility will begin to leverage magnetic resonance, ultrasound, computed tomography, X-ray and vascular equipment, provided by Toshiba American Medical Systems, Inc., to improve the quality of diagnostic results.

The new surgical facility was established through a collaboration between St. Luke's Episcopal Health System and area cardiovascular and orthopedic/spine specialists, said Lakeside officials. Physicians and specialists requested up to date medical imaging technology for the six surgical suites and three cardiac catheterization labs, Lakeside officials said.

St. Luke’s Lakeside has installed Toshiba’s Vantage Titan MR system, Aplio Artida ultrasound system, Aquilion CX CT system, two Infinix-i cath labs and a Kalare R&F system.

“Our goal with this facility was to build a place that is at the forefront of medical innovation. To do this we needed imaging equipment that could image patients regardless of their size or special needs and still produce high quality images that would improve diagnostic confidence and accuracy,” said Diane McNamee, CNO and assistant vice president, St. Luke’s Lakeside Hospital.

Clinical staff expect the short, open bore and clinical field-of-view that the new MR system provides will improve patient comfort by reducing the feeling of claustrophobia, and help enable technologists to properly position MR coils.

St. Luke’s Lakeside clinical staff look to leverage its new cardiovascular equipment to improve viewing of patient hearts. The Artida ultrasound, Infinix VFi/SP and Aquillion CX systems are expected to provide more advance images for physician diagnosis.

New features available to physicians include:

* Real-time, multi-planar reformatting capabilities;
* Arbitrary views of the heart, not available in 2D imaging;
* Angle-independent, global and regional information regarding myocardial contraction;
* Improved patient access;
* Reduced procedure time, improved departmental workflow.