- Amid technologist shortage, new mammography innovation was designed through intensive collaboration with technologists will help to streamline workflow and humanize care
November 30, 2024
Chicago, IL, (Highpoint Digest News) − On November 26, 2024, GE HealthCare announced the new Pristina Via™*mammography system designed to enhance the screening experience for both technologists and patients. Debuting at the Radiological Society of North America’s 2024 Annual Meeting, this innovation provides mammography technologists with a suite of sophisticated tools that balance the demands of diagnostic accuracy and fast-paced workflows to facilitate more patient-centered breast care.
Recent data from the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT) highlights a dramatic increase in technologist vacancy rates—from 6% three years ago to 18% in 2024 —while the number of women seeking mammograms has remained steady.1 Amid this global shortage of technologists,[1] the demand for more efficient and intelligent workflows is at an all-time high.
As the company continues to evolve the patient-centric Senographe Pristina platform, Pristina Via brings advanced new features to help minimize repetitive tasks and streamline workflows so that mammography technologists can maintain their focus on providing quality and personalized care during the screening experience.
“At GE HealthCare, we are dedicated to addressing our customers’ needs by delivering solutions that enhance the experience for both patients and healthcare professionals,” said Jyoti Gupta, PhD – President & CEO for Women’s Health and X-ray at GE HealthCare. “Pristina Via represents a significant evolution in our patient focused Senographe Pristina platform which was designed by women for women. With the new in-room workflow, Pristina Via minimizes laborious tasks and provides technologists with the gift of time to prioritize what matters most: compassionate, patient-centered care.”
Setting a New Standard in Breast Imaging
The Pristina Via mammography system takes in-room workflow and patient comfort to the next level through:
- Zero-click acquisition functionality for faster, seamless workflows.
- No wait time between exposures, allowing technologists to operate at their own speed. Pristina Via DBT image-to-image cycle time is up to twice as fast as other mammography systems on the market.[2]
- Vendor-neutral prior image comparison, reducing time spent analyzing previous exams and enabling final assessments more efficiently.
- Lowest radiation dose used for all breast thicknesses amongst major mammography systems.[3]
The Pristina Via utilizes these advanced features to streamline technologists’ workflow and enable exceptional speed. Additionally, Pristina Via also features a future-focused, scalable platform with full backward compatibility to provide imaging centers access to the latest capabilities while also providing flexibility to support the evolving needs of their sites. Pristina Via is built on the Pristina platform which provides exceptional reliability. The Pristina platform is supported by GE HealthCare service contracts and warranty, under which the Pristina systems demonstrate a 99% uptime.[4]
Designed with Technologists in Mind
GE HealthCare developed the Pristina Via to build on its commitment of developing innovation to solve the challenges that patients and users face. The company performed almost 250 interviews and observations[5] with mammography technologists, which revealed that technologists’ greatest challenge is keeping up with the rapid pace of modern medicine without sacrificing accuracy or patient-centered care.
“Simplifying, automating, and streamlining the mammography exam to improve in-room workflows is critical to driving patient compliance and access to screening,” said Dr. John Simon, CEO of SimonMed, one of the largest nationwide outpatient imaging providers serving hundreds of thousands of women with breast cancer screening and diagnostic services annually. “As a leading mammography provider in the country, we are actively investing in new technologies, workflows and AI innovation that improve clinical and operational outcomes. The enhancements offered by Pristina Via are part of our mission of making advanced technology accessible.”
“During our intensive collaboration with our end users in the design phase, we heard time and again that the technologist’s workday can feel like a race against the clock,” said Pooja Pathak, Vice President and General Manager for Global Mammography at GE HealthCare. “Pristina Via is our answer to this challenge. The system’s advanced features were engineered to automate processes and allow our users to give patients the attentive, quality care they deserve. I am thrilled that SimonMed our longtime customer, will be implementing this new technology as part of their mammography services.”
Source: General Electric Healthcare
Image Credit: General Electric Healthcare
