BY STEPHANIE DOYLE

Seaside Imaging at Celebration Health creates a "virtual beach" environment to make patients feel more at ease during CT scans.

Patients from throughout the state are traveling to Celebration for a new dimension in obstetric observation. "Look honey, he has your nose," one patient told her husband after viewing their unborn baby boy 4D ultrasound-style.

The GE Voluson® 730 4D Ultrasound System allows patients and physicians to see an unborn baby's features with stunning clarity — particularly useful technology to physicians who want to better review fetal development or conditions such as cleft palette and spina bifida.

The Voluson® 730 from GE Medical Systems is just one of many revolutionary technologies found at Florida Hospital Celebration Health's Imaging Center, also called Seaside Imaging, located in Disney's town of Celebration. The imaging center, part of the overall Florida Hospital Radiology Network, opened in January 1998. The equipment investment alone carried a $10 million price tag.

"We opened totally film-less," says Sally Grady, director of imaging for Celebration Health and Florida Hospital Kissimmee.

Seaside Imaging operates solely in digital format, but can provide standard film for patients and physicians who request it. Digitized images can be transmitted electronically to specialists for immediate review, and images are available to patients and their physicians on a CD, which can be reviewed on any personal computer. Physicians also have quick, secured access to individual medical records via the Internet.

It takes more than 60 full-time employees to keep Celebration Health's imaging department running. Services offered run the gamut: fluoroscopy; nuclear medicine; 64-slice CT scanning; Heart Score, which determines the extent of calcification in the coronary arteries; coronary arteriography (CTA); whole body screening; short bore, high field imaging; angiography and venography (MRA and MRV); MR cholangio-pancreatography; digital mammography and computer-aided detection (CAD); and DEXA (osteoporosis screening).

With the R2 Image Checker from GE Medical Systems, mammogram images are analyzed by a computer, which alerts radiologists to areas of concern that may be undetectable to the human eye. The Senographe 2000D, also from GE, uses digital technology for a clear view of the breast tissue. Because it is digital, the image is visible within 10 seconds.

Celebration Health was one of the first facilities in the country to install 4D imaging technology. Patients and physicians can view real-time 3D images of anatomy in motion, including unborn children. By obtaining up to 16 scan volumes per second, images are displayed on a monitor in real time, going well beyond the boundaries of traditional ultrasound imaging.

The Voluson® 730 has advanced signal processing, which produces higher-quality ultrasound images. "The images are spectacular,'' Grady says. "They eliminate any confusion patients sometimes have with viewing traditional ultrasound images — the images are that good."

The system's Speckle Reduction Imaging (SRI) increases visibility of organs and lesions through improved contrast resolution and border detection, while CrossBeam® (CRI) enhances tissue and border differentiation. There also is a bi-directional Doppler feature that allows for a more sensitive vascular study.

Patients are the biggest benefactors of the new technology because it opens up new evaluation opportunities to physicians, in diagnosis and therapy planning as well as in ultrasound-guided procedures such as biopsies. Physicians can detect or rule out any number of issues, from vascular abnormalities to genetic syndromes.

Cardiologists can benefit from Voluson® 730's spatio-temporal image correlation (STIC), which can quickly capture a full fetal heart cycle beating in real-time and save the volume analysis for later.

In addition to analyzing fetal development, the Voluson® 730 can be used for breast imaging, interventional urology, and general imaging, as well as to determine fetal age, evaluate multiple and/or high-risk pregnancies, and detect fetal and placental abnormalities and structural problems with the uterus.

Grady has seen a 300 percent increase in business since May 2002 when her department installed the 4D imaging system.

"For new parents, it creates such a bonding experience," she says.