Sony plans to release a new, more user-friendly workflow version of its modality-neutral NUCLeUS medical imaging platform, pending FDA 510(k) clearance. The next generation platform is intended to offer hospitals a streamlined digital imaging workflow and create valuable efficiency improvements, in addition to supporting 4K resolution. It is also designed to easily route and deliver key information, such as video, audio, and other pertinent clinical data, wherever and whenever it is needed across the hospital campus.
 
With secure access from anywhere over a hospital’s IP network, professionals will be able to capture and manage video and audio content in near real-time for centralized storage and access through NUCLeUS, offering new workflows and operational efficiencies.
 
NUCLeUS will offer hospitals a host of benefits, from enhanced training and education tools to cost-effective networked medical image content management. It is designed to streamline the workflow in operating rooms and laboratory facilities by providing fast access to relevant imaging data via a central dashboard. It is also intended to provide users with a virtually real-time transmission function to help clinicians and management teams make more informed decisions.
 
“At Sony, we are experts in 4K and IP technology in the broadcast and production realm, and it is a natural evolution for these technologies to provide the same benefits and efficiencies to the healthcare space,” said Theresa Alesso, pro division president, Sony Electronics. “With the next generation of the NUCLeUS platform, Sony will offer a modality-neutral, digital solution that will efficiently address the demands of O.R. managers and integrators. As connected devices gain a foothold in hospitals, clinicians will gain new capabilities to centrally collect, store, and distribute medical imaging files across a hospital network, enabling more effective and informed patient care.”
 
Working off a flexible, software-based environment, NUCLeUS showcases Sony’s continued investment in the healthcare industry with this introduction of a new NUCLeUS smart application designed to utilize existing hospital network infrastructures.
 
Highlights of the design features of the next generation NUCLeUS platform include:
 
Workflow-Orientated Features for Clinicians
 

• Ability to handle multi-format, multi-standard and resolution up to 4K
• Enhanced streaming and recording of high-quality audio and video, powered by advanced video switching and routing capabilities
• Improved image routing and viewing options, enabling smoother imaging workflows through all phases of a surgical intervention, from the planning stage to post-operative patient reviews
• Updated education and teaching broadcasting capabilities by using virtually real-time communication tools such as smarter annotation features
• Workflow enhancement through NUCLeUS smart applications such as rotation correction

 
IT-Oriented Features
 

• Fully scalable solution that can be easily extended to other rooms or hospital buildings at any time
• Provides IT managers with a secure and encrypted way of remote and preventive solution maintenance, including self-monitoring capabilities

 
Integration-Oriented Features
 

• Modality-neutral, software-driven platform supports routing images from many different manufacturers
• Greater support for third-party applications via business APIs and a variety of mechanisms and tools
• Secure HIS integration and fully HL7/DICOM compatible

 
Customers outside of the United States that have deployed Sony’s current NUCLeUS imaging platform in a move to create enhanced surgical imaging workflows and optimize their operations include:
 

• University Hospitals Leuven (UZ Leuven), one of Belgium’s leading teaching hospitals with almost 2,000 patient beds and more than 9,000 employees, uses the NUCLeUS platform to perform thousands of surgical interventions every year across 34 of its digital operating rooms
• Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden chose the NUCLeUSplatform as its standard video-over-IP platform; 31 NUCLeUS systems were installed to manage video-based workflows inside the operating rooms and also outside connection to auditoriums and lecture rooms, as well as remote advisory through telestration

 
Sony is committed to helping healthcare organizations streamline their imaging workflows, so that clinical staff can provide the best professional offerings. The NUCLeUS imaging platform is an innovative system for medical imaging that is designed to contribute to operational efficiency and quality improvements and to provide tools for better informed clinical decisions.
 
This next generation is the result of Sony’s acquisition in 2016 of eSaturnus, a Belgium-based company that provides leading clinical video-over-IP solutions for the medical field. This expertise, combined with Sony’s imaging and AV/IT technologies, has led to the continual investment and development of the NUCLeUS imaging platform.
 
The next generation NUCLeUS platform is planned to be available in the U.S. in December 2019, pending FDA 510(k) clearance.