SAN ANTONIO — The days of sliding into a machine to get scans is now much easier and faster. And it is all thanks to a new AI-based technology.
Baptist Health System was the first imaging facility to acquire and implement the technology called "Air Recon DL" into its imaging suites. It benefits radiologists by making the images sharper and easier to diagnose, and benefits patients by cutting scan time nearly in half.
"I had acute appendicitis that they discovered in the emergency room through a CT scan. And I had to have my appendix removed just a few hours later," said Leigh Skrnich. But that wasn't her only problem. They found a cyst on her kidney too, and she had to get an outpatient scan using Baptist's new AI technology. She told us, "It was more efficient. It was faster. It seemed like the tech was super prepared for what was going on."
Dr. Ankitkumar Patel, a Baptist Health radiologist said, "The new AI or artificial intelligence and deep learning software has really changed how we reduce the noise or the blurriness within the images." He added, "What you can appreciate is how clean these images are and the really sharp margins around the bladder and the sharp margins around the prostate gland."
Also, instead of a bulky heavy body coil patients had over their bodies while scanning, they've got something new to make sliding into that tube much less claustrophobic. Dr. Patel said, "This is the new air coil we are utilizing with the new technology. It is much thinner and much more comfortable. Almost like a blanket."
The technology also cuts the average scan time down substantially from 45 minutes to 25 minutes. Scans that normally take 25 minutes only take 15. Overall, there is about a 40 percent reduction in scan time. Dr. Patel added, "You can imagine how wonderful it would be to improve patient's quality of imaging as a whole."
Baptist says they are currently in the process of implementing the new technology in all of their 13 outpatient imaging centers.