Toshiba touts camera with 3-D video display

Toshiba America Medical Systems used a little marketing pizzazzto unveil an adjustable-angle dual-head gamma camera as a work-in-progressat this month's Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting in Toronto.Rather than display an empty mock-up of the camera, TAMS useda 3-D interactive laser-disk presentation to walk convention-goersthrough the camera's applications. The technique is both glitzyand cost-effective.

"Using the interactive display, we can clearly demonstratehow the system will operate in the clinical environment and wecan do that at a substantially lower exhibition cost," saidSteve Sickels, manager of TAMS' nuclear medicine unit. "Intoday's market environment, we felt that this is a more appropriateproduct demonstration technique."

The product presentation consisted of a four-minute video andinteractive 3-D laser-disk program. The video displayed 10 dual-headprocedures possible with the GCA-7200 camera, including off-tableimaging, whole-body studies, single-photon emission computed tomographyand SPECT immediately after whole body. Laser-disk technologyoffers viewers instant access to the desired segment.

The GCA-7200 will be the Tustin, CA-based Toshiba's first nuclearcamera with adjustable detectors, Sickels said. Toshiba currentlymarkets a fixed-angle dual-head unit, the GCA-901A/HG. While theGCA-7200 is more versatile than its predecessor, it will not perform90´-angle studies as do variable-angle cameras from ADACand Sopha.

The unit will also be Toshiba's first gamma camera to use thevendor's Robocontour feature, in which infrared sensors adjustdetectors to within 2 cm of a patient's body shape. Robocontourworks on the fly, without requiring trial runs for the systemto "learn" the contour of the patient's body.

The camera will operate on Sun SPARC 2E architecture, and willeventually be upgraded to the Sun SPARC 10. Toshiba is also upgradingits HG Series nuclear medicine workstation line to Sun SPARC 10,which will enable faster menu selection for users.

Toshiba filed for Food and Drug Administration 510(k) clearancefor the system in March and hopes to begin marketing the unitby the end of this year.

In other Toshiba news, TAMS named Ravi D. Sharma as vice presidentof marketing last month. Sharma most recently held the positionof vice president of service. He joined the company in 1989.