Mentice, Siemens Healthineers bring Virtual Patient to Angio-suite

Siemens Healthineers  and Mentice AB announced the collaboration tofully integrate Mentice's VIST Virtual Patient into the Artis icono angiographysystem from Siemens Healthineers. The VIST Virtual Patient thus becomes a fullyintegrated simulation solution for the angio-suite. The global partnershipbetween the two companies will allow interventional radiologists,neuroradiologists and cardiologists to perform vascular and cardiacinterventions on a virtual patient inside the angio-suite.

"With an ever-increasing complexity of newinterventional procedures, our customers strive to acquire and retainprocedural skills while optimizing their performance and improving patientsafety. The Artis icono angiography system equipped with a VIST Virtual Patientwill make it possible to train new interventional procedures directly in theangio room," said Dr. Michael Scheuering, Head of Interventional Radiologyat Siemens Healthineers.

"The VIST Virtual Patient integration into the Artisicono angiography system will open new opportunities for clinical teams to improvetheir overall performance, drive operational efficiency, and more importantly,help improve patient outcomes. By using the Artis icono system on the VISTVirtual Patient, clinicians may now explore new interventional proceduremethods and experience the use of new medical devices while reducing clinicaltraining on actual patients and eliminating exposure to radiation," saidGoran Malmberg, CEO at Mentice. "The VIST Virtual Patient provides animmersive, high-fidelity, simulation-based environment accessible right fromthe Artis icono system making this integration one of the most sophisticatedoptions in the field of endovascular skills acquisition."

Interventionalists may now perform simulated cardiac andvascular procedures by using the Artis icono controls to angulate the C-arm,move the angiography table, use the foot pedals, and review fluoroscopic imageson the Artis icono screens while deploying actual medical devices in aradiation-free environment. The integrated solution will allow clinicians toperform procedures either by using Mentice's extensive library of patient casesor by importing actual MR and CT patient data for case training and rehearsal.Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), intravascular ultrasound (IVUS),optical coherence tomography (OCT), and fractional flow reserve (FFR)procedures are also available.