Software as a Service: Siemens provides CAD application for radiography via the Internet

syngo CXR CAD Subscription customers with digital radiography systems, such as Ysio and AXIOM Aristos can receive computer-aided detection (CAD) results via remote processing.

The CAD application, which processes radiographs to help doctors detect potential nodules in the lungs, can be subscribed to without adding hardware to the facility. With syngo CXR CAD Subscription, a separate workstation is no longer required to be installed in a clinic or practice, and offsite processing occurs on a Siemens-owned server. Users will have automatic access to syngo CXR CAD Subscription updates. The client software extracts a CAD Image Signature (CIS) from the image, which contains the necessary information for the CAD algorithm to process the image and produce CAD results.

The CIS does not contain any private information, such as patient name and date of birth. The CAD results are then transferred back to the clinic or practice, where they are allocated to the corresponding patient and stored in an application such as PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System). This makes the CAD data available to the doctor as a “second reader” for the detection of lesions.

“syngo CXR CAD Subscription offers our customers a different deployment option for CAD, while simplifying their workflow since the results are processed off site,” comments Arthur Kaindl, CEO, Image and Knowledge Management, Siemens Healthcare. “This allows them to use innovative CAD technology in a convenient and flexible manner.”

“syngo CXR CAD Subscription is the next step toward a fully integrated, virtualized imaging environment,” said Dr. Peter Herzog, attending physician, Amper Kliniken AG in Germany.

At the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) 2010, Siemens Healthcare will introduce such a model for a CAD application.