Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics Pre-Publication
Signal and contrast to noise ratio evaluation of fluoroscopic loops for interventional fluoroscope quality control

Research on automated fluoroscopy QC using QC-Track in an IR lab has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics. The pre-publication of the paper appeared online on October 8, 2019.

The paper’s first author is Allen Goode, M.S., Chief Diagnostic Medical Physicist, University of Virginia Health System. Carl Snyder, PhD, Senior Engineer at Atirix, and Angela Snyder, PhD, Atirix VP of Research, are listed as second and third authors, respectively. The research effort was led by Goode and included his team at the University of Virginia Health System in collaboration with the research team at Atirix Medical Systems.

AAPM 61 ^st Annual Meeting Oral Presentation
Automated Phantom Analysis for Gamma Cameras – An Efficient, Accessible, Consistent, and Sensitive Method for Quality Control

Research using QC-Track for automated phantom analysis in nuclear medicine QC was presented by Erik Tazegul, Atirix Research Analyst, as a talk at the 2019 AAPM Annual Meeting. ( View the narrated presentation here. ) The abstract describes a robust automated quantitative image analysis package for efficiently assessing gamma camera image quality in a busy clinical setting.

The research was a collaborative effort between the Atirix Medical Systems and University of Virginia Health System research teams.

ACR MRI QC Highlight at AAPM 2018
ACR acknowledges Atirix recommendation of SNR as alternative to spoke counting for MRI QC

The American College of Radiology (ACR) MRI accreditation program has officially acknowledged signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as an alternative measurement to low contrast detectability for weekly MRI quality control.

This addition came at the suggestion of Angela Snyder, Ph.D, Director of Research for Atirix Medical Systems, who advocated for the alternative quality measure.

Using SNR as the daily/weekly measurement of MRI image quality:

• offers greater sensitivity to subtle performance changes,
• has a broader range than spoke counting,
• is quantitative rather than qualitative, and
• for facilities using QC-Track’s automated phantom analysis module, is a faster measure to obtain than spoke count, leading to more efficient MRI QC.

The ACR’s statement on using SNR in place of low contrast detectability can be found at the bottom of the FAQ section of the ACR's MRI Accreditation web page.

AAPM TG272
Effective September 2016 - Current

Steve Backes, President and CEO of Atirix, is a consulting member of AAPM Task Group No. 272 - Comprehensive Acceptance Testing and Evaluation of Fluoroscopy Imaging Systems.

Atirix is using QC-Track to support the research efforts of the TG272 Quality Control subcommittee.