PROMOTION
TOSHIBA’S
HUMAN SMART
COMMUNITY
Advancing Patient Care While Reducing Costs
BY MICHAE L RONEY
Today’s healthcare landscape is
shifting. The Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA)
is compelling hospitals, clinics and
physicians to serve their patients in
entirely new ways.
This new reality has elevated the
critical role of diagnostic imaging.
“Frequently, healthcare institutions want guidance through these
changes, and that’s our focus,” says
Ryo Fujimoto, General Manager of
Toshiba America Medical Systems,
which sells and services radiology
and cardiovascular systems and
coordinates clinical diagnostic imaging research. “We built our business
around this position, and it drives
everything we do.”
ENSURING OPTIMAL CARE
One way the ACA has changed
healthcare is the formula for how
providers are reimbursed, linking
payments more closely with results.
“Reimbursements are divided among
providers, with part of the payment
based on patient feedback and medical outcomes, making it critical that
every phase go as well as possible,”
Fujimoto explains. “Diagnostic imaging is a small part of the whole care
cycle when it’s measured in hours,
days or even dollars.
But this stage sets up
what happens five
steps ahead, and sometimes for the whole
period of patient care.
When used well, it sets
up the care cycle to be
efficient and effective.”
Optimal patient care
is paramount under
the ACA, and dose
reduction in imaging is critical. That is
why Toshiba provides
Adaptive Iterative Dose
Reduction 3D (AIDR
3D), a third-generation
Ryo Fujimoto, General Manager, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc.
dose reconstruction
software that comes
patients safer while improving the
standard on all Toshiba CTs. One cusexam experience. “For instance, we
tomer, St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center,
have CTs and MRIs with larger bores,
is using dose limiting technology,
making it easier for the patient to
reducing doses for brain imaging by
go in and stay in,” explains Fujimoto.
30%, abdominal imaging by 59% and
“Our MRI is also the quietest in the
chest imaging by 60%.
industry, making it as comfortable as
Of course, safety is always
possible to have a scan.”
critical—for patients, providers and
institutions. Toshiba’s 360 Degrees
RETURN ON IMAGING
of Safety program takes a holistic
INVESTMENT
approach, focusing not only on dose
management, but also on patient
Advanced diagnostic imaging
experience and innovative designs
helps providers and patients save
that reduce operator error, making
on healthcare costs over the long
PROMOTION
run by offering features to provide
better outcomes for the patient and
enhanced help for the care of populations, with more efficient workflows.
“One great example is our partnership with Gates Vascular Institute
in Buffalo, New York, where they
specialize in stroke treatment,” says
Fujimoto. “They save over a million
dollars a year using our CT scanner,
Aquilion ONE ViSION. Our Smart
Fusion ultrasound technology allows
a clinician to sync real-time ultrasound images with CT or MRI images,
making it safer and more costeffective to use no-dose biopsy. In
the short term, productivity is higher
and cost of treatment is lower.”
INNOVATION AND SERVICE
“Toshiba has a tremendous history of technology innovation and
a notable research-to-sales ratio,”
Fujimoto points out. “In fact, many of
our advanced imaging technologies
are built on innovations developed
for other areas of the business.”
This innovative tradition is reflected
in systems like e-Watch™, which
monitors the power, temperature and
humidity in the room in which the
imaging system resides, and quickly
detects problems that could lead to
that equipment not performing at
its full potential. Toshiba also offers a
Toshiba’s Aquilion ONE ViSION can help healthcare
facilities provide safe and fast CT examinations.
remote diagnostic system that allows
service engineers and applications
specialists to see what is occurring
on the systems 24/7. “With innovations like e-Watch, we can proactively
address issues before they occur,”
Fujimoto says.
EDUCATION AND SUPPORT
“Education is very important to our
customers,” notes Fujimoto. “Hospitals
make a big investment when they
purchase any imaging product. That
Human Smart Community
Toshiba’s vision for the future is a “Human Smart Community”
—a society that is technologically advanced but that puts people’s
well-being first. With our focus on healthcare, energy and cloud and
storage technology, we are working to create a future ideal of a safe,
secure and comfortable society. In the future we envision, everyone
everywhere can flourish and enjoy a rich and vibrant life.
makes it very important for them to
adopt new skills, use the equipment
safely and provide the image quality
physicians need to make a confident
diagnosis.”
He adds that Toshiba’s worldwide
vision for Human Smart Community
by lifenology dovetails with his
company’s medical mission, which
is to improve the quality of life for
all people through a long-term,
customer-focused partnership.
“We’re dedicated to helping our
customers understand the intricacies of these turbulent times, providing healthcare economic resources
to staff and access to a call-in/e-mail
contact for 24-hour turnaround on
questions regarding reimbursement
and coding. When our customers
purchase a product, they also are
acquiring a strong support relationship for its lifetime.”
Lifenology
We call the technologies needed to create this ideal society
“lifenology”—a combination of “life” and “technology.” Toshiba
lifenology is more than a single product or technology. Rather, by
marrying the know-how behind a wide range of technologies, we
create new value that can benefit people all around the world. Through
“lifenology,” Toshiba will realize the “Human Smart Community.”
To learn more about the Human
Smart Community by lifenology, visit
forbes.com/toshibalifenology4