Future Tense

Technology: Aquilion ONE dynamic volume CT system.

Manufacturer: Toshiba.

Purpose: The ONE system utilizes 320 ultra-high-resolution detector rows to image an entire organ in a single rotation. The result is a four-dimensional depiction of an organ, including its blood flow and function.

Early adopters: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD; Brigham and Women's Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

What it does: The system scans the organ and produces 4D (a 3D object shown in motion) videos that show the organ's structure, its movement, and blood flow. In comparison, a 64-slice, 128-slice, or 256-slice CT scan only captures a portion of an organ on each single pass, causing the physician to "stitch together" multiple scans of an organ to get a full image.

Potential Improvement: As the only CT system in the world that can image an entire organ in one rotation, the Aquilion ONE helps provide a faster diagnosis and 80% fewer X-rays than with other CT scanners for ailments such as heart disease and stroke.

What's Next: Wider adoption of the system at hospitals across the United States leading to improved productivity and patient outcomes through the shortened exam/diagnosis times.

—Kathryn Mackenzie