Baptist Health of Northeast Florida Acquires Brainsuite® iMRI and Brainsuite® iCT Digitally Integrated ORs

WESTCHESTER, Ill., April 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Baptist Health of Northeast Florida will be the first health system in North America to offer intra-operative imaging during pediatric and adult brain surgery and non-surgical radiosurgical procedures with the Brainlab Brainsuite® iMRI (intra-operative magnetic resonance imaging), featuring the GE Healthcare 1.5T Optima™ MR450w wide-bore scanner, and Brainsuite® iCT (intra-operative computed tomography), featuring the Siemens SOMATOM® Sensation Open CT scanner. They will be integrated into a new 11-story patient care tower scheduled to open in December 2012.

Two Baptist Health hospitals—Baptist Medical Center and Wolfson Children's Hospital—will be able to efficiently share the technology for neurosurgical procedures. The hospitals are well-known nationally for neurosurgery, and Baptist Medical Center was named in U.S. News & World Report's "Best Hospitals 2009-2010" and among the top 50 hospitals for neurology and neurosurgery.

"We're pleased to be able to provide our community with technology that can aid in the success of brain procedures," said John Wilbanks, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Baptist Health. "Brainsuite offers the possibility that patients will need fewer procedures and have better outcomes."

Brainsuite iMRI and iCT will create digitally integrated operating rooms that can provide intra-operative, diagnostic iMRI and iCT imaging and patient data. This will help to allow adult and pediatric neurosurgeons to determine a tumor's location and remove additional tumor cells while avoiding critical functional areas of the brain—all during the same procedure. Rather than waiting until after surgery to determine whether a procedure has removed diseased tissue from the brain (as is done traditionally), patients can be evaluated in the OR, while still under anesthesia, and neurosurgeons can perform additional surgery if needed.

Additionally, Brainsuite iCT provides real-time imaging with detailed information surgeons can use for spinal, ENT, craniomaxillofacial and orthopedic surgeries.

The iMRI and iCT technology can be used as an adjunctive treatment to the Novalis Tx™ image-guided radiosurgery system Baptist Health acquired in 2009. Novalis® Radiosurgery allows a neurosurgeon to contour radiation to the shape of a patient's tumor, ensuring the optimal dose is delivered while supporting the preservation of healthy tissue. This non-invasive approach allows physicians to treat tumors or conditions that are difficult to reach surgically.

GE Healthcare's innovative MR Surgical Suite design assists doctors throughout the surgical process. There is no need for any repositioning of the patient in between diagnostic, surgical or patient transport. The suite can be used as a stand-alone MR imaging center when not being used during the surgical procedure.

"We are in the business of finding solutions for health care that will have a positive impact on people's lives and, in line with our Healthymagination strategy, GE Healthcare's MR Surgical Suite aims to offer clinicians greater quality in their work, allowing them to be more efficient and offer more tailored patient treatment," said John Ferut, GE Healthcare.

"The integration of the data from the intra-operative MRI from GE and the operative neuro-navigational suite from Brainlab will allow for the seamless flow of surgical care for the child with a brain tumor," said Philipp Aldana, MD, chief of pediatric neurosurgery for Wolfson Children's Hospital. "This will make it easier for the neurosurgeon to determine if the tumor has been removed completely. Completeness of brain tumor resection in children is one of the most important factors that impacts patient survival. It will be a tremendous service that we can offer our children of the region and the state as the children's hospital in the state to have an intra-operative MRI."

The Siemens SOMATOM Sensation Open Sliding Gantry CT travels on rails over the OR table, allowing for efficient utilization between one to two ORs, and provides high quality intra-operative scanning without moving the patient.

"Siemens customer-focused philosophy is to continually integrate cutting-edge imaging applications into the daily clinical routine, providing high-quality patient care while simultaneously lowering costs. This is easily recognized in the sliding gantry configuration of the SOMATOM Sensation CT scanner. The sliding gantry provides a valuable clinical benefit for patients in a variety of applications, including neurology, trauma, surgery and radiation oncology," said Kulin Hemani, vice president, Computed Tomography, Siemens Healthcare USA.

"We look at both Brainsuite iMRI and Brainsuite iCT as key components of the versatile and integrated surgery and radiosurgery treatment we provide for adult and pediatric patients at Baptist Medical Center and Wolfson Children's Hospital," said Baptist Health neurosurgeon Howard Chandler, Jr., MD, medical director of Baptist's Novalis program. "This integration will allow surgeons to have surgical and non-invasive Novalis radiosurgery treatments at their disposal to deliver the highest level of patient care possible. In addition, Brainsuite will allow us to gauge our progress against pre-determined surgical goals before completing surgical procedures."

The Brainlab Brainsuite integrates neuro-navigational and comprehensive OR data management software with diagnostic imaging for iMRI and iCT.

"At Brainlab, we are proud to develop integrated planning, advanced imaging and powerful radiation delivery technologies that help healthcare institutions realize greater efficiencies and improved treatment. We are honored that Baptist Health of Northeast Florida has chosen to grow our longstanding relationship by becoming the first health system in North America to offer Brainsuite iMRI, Brainsuite iCT and Novalis Radiosurgery technology," said Cameron Georges, director, Brainlab Inc.

About Brainlab

Brainlab develops, manufactures and markets software-driven medical technology that supports targeted, less-invasive treatment. Core products are image-guided systems and software that provide real-time information used for surgical navigation and radiosurgical planning and delivery.

Brainlab technology drives collaboration between hospitals and clinicians from a wide variety of subspecialties—from neurosurgery and oncology to orthopedics, ENT, CMF and spine & trauma. This integration delivers better access to improved and more efficient treatment. Founded in 1989, the privately held Brainlab group has 5,260 systems installed in over 80 countries. Based in Munich, Germany, Brainlab employs 950 people in 16 offices worldwide. To learn more, visit www.brainlab.com.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems. Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.

About Siemens Healthcare

The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 48,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. In fiscal year 2010 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 12.4 billion euros and profit of around 750 million euros. For further information please visit: www.siemens.com/healthcare.

About Baptist Health

Baptist Health is a faith-based, mission-driven system comprised of Baptist Medical Center Downtown and Baptist Heart Hospital; Baptist Medical Center Beaches; Baptist Medical Center Nassau; Baptist Medical Center South; and Wolfson Children's Hospital – Jacksonville's only children's hospital. All Baptist Health hospitals, along with Baptist Home Health Care, have achieved Magnet™ status, an international quality designation that recognizes excellence in patient care. Baptist Health also includes cardiology and cardiovascular surgery services; a comprehensive cancer center; orthopaedic institute; women's resource center; neurosciences, including neurosurgery and two Joint Commission-certified stroke centers; a full range of psychology and psychiatry services; outpatient facilities; urgent care services and a network of primary care physicians' offices throughout Northeast Florida. Baptist Health is the official healthcare provider for the Jacksonville Jaguars. For more information, visit www.e-baptisthealth.com. For information on Wolfson Children's Hospital, visit www.wolfsonchildrens.org.

SOURCE Brainlab