Hitachi Aloka Medical America Inc (HAMA) announced that is has been secured as the exclusive North American distributor of the Sofia automated breast imaging system from iVu Imaging Corp. Through the agreement between iVu Imaging and HAMA, iVu’s Sofia automated whole breast ultrasound scanner now includes Hitachi transducer technology. The Hitachi transducers are said to allow the acquisition of an entire breast volume in 52 seconds, and an average interpretation time of less than 2 minutes per case.
According to the HAMA announcement, the Sofia system’s fully automated scan procedure provides rapid whole breast image acquisition with one button, making it possible to schedule patients for a bilateral breast examination every 15 minutes. Because of the system’s prone position of the breast and tomographic reconstruction of images, Sofia data sets can be compared in the same plane and orientation as those acquired with other tomographic modalities such as DBT and MRI.
“We are continually looking for ways that Hitachi Aloka can respond rapidly to the ever-changing landscape of medical imaging and provide our customers with comprehensive ultrasound solutions,” said David Famiglietti, president and general manager of HAMA. “The alliance is a great example of this because the result is more than just the sum of its parts. Through our combined technology and market knowledge, we’ve created an automated whole breast ultrasound solution that offers imaging, economic, and operational advantages over all the competitive products available today.”
For more information about the Sofia system or distribution deal, visit the Hitachi Aloka Medical America (HAMA) or iVu Imaging websites.
