Siemens Healthcare is adding CARE Analytics to its portfolio of CARE (Combined Applications to Reduce Exposure) applications. The new application allows dose received by patients during an examination with Siemens CT scanners, x-ray and fluoroscopy devices, and angiography systems to be analyzed and evaluated.

The dose received by each individual patient on these systems is recorded in a file format standard, which allows future use and analysis.

The dose relevant data in these DICOM files comprises among others, information such as CT-dose index (CTDIvol), dose length product (DLP), total recording time or the dose surface product. Until now these data have merely been archived in DICOM structure reports, but were not further processed.

CARE Analytics extracts the dose-related data from the reports and displays it in Microsoft Excel format, for example, according to Siemens. Using data edited in this way, medical staff are able to compare dosages given during different examinations in order to further optimize the scan protocols.

In addition, it is possible to ascertain the dose a patient has received on different systems over a series of exams. Dose reporting between multiple hospitals is also possible, Siemens stated.