Amicas Focuses With Fovia

Despite what some out there might think, Amicas doesn't tell me everything that's going on with their new software. Sometimes I learn things from the normal sources, such as AuntMinnie.com.

I've been dabbling with a beta version of Amicas PACS, a.k.a. Version 6, a.k.a. Phoenix, which has some rather advanced 3D features on board:

I knew some of the coding had been farmed out to other software shops, as is typical with a huge project of this sort. According to the AuntMinnie teaser, Amicas has just signed with Fovia Medical of Palo Alto, California to integrate Fovia's HDVR (High Definition Volume Rendering) into V6. I'm not certain if my beta-server has Fovia's software on it, but what's on there is pretty powerful already.

So who (or what) is Fovia?

Fovia Medical, Inc., a subsidiary of Fovia, Inc., is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and is an international leader in volume rendering, an advanced technique for visualizing and analyzing large volumes of data in three dimensions. High Definition Volume Rendering® is a proprietary technique, developed by Fovia, which delivers unparalleled image quality and performance.

Fovia appears to have made great strides with software rendering:

Fovia’s HDVR solution overcomes the many limitations of currently available imaging technologies, therefore enabling physicians to take full advantage of 3D imaging as part of everyday patient care. Selected features and benefits of Fovia’s proprietary solution include:

• On-the-fly, interactive deep supersampling with off the-shelf hardware

• Software-only solution that is faster than specialized hardware (ASIC) and video card-based approaches

• Interactive rendering of large datasets without data down/subsampling

• Non-compromised remote rendering over the internet or wireless networks

• Interactive rendering without preprocessing

• Scalability with more users, larger datasets, bigger rendering planes, multiple CPUs and clustering

• On-the-fly modification of all rendering settings

• Instant segmentation

• Multi-classification support

• Native support for embedded polygonal objects

• Selected per tissue lighting control via extended transfer functions

• On-the-fly auto-navigation for fly-through

• Subvoxel precision for 3D measurement

• Compatibility with Windows/Macintosh/Linux platforms

Fovia has designed its HDVR software engine to be easily integrated into various original equipment manufacturers’ offerings, therefore allowing PACS companies, imaging modality manufacturers and other medical imaging OEMs to easily, quickly and cost-effectively integrate a best-of-breed 3D solution.

And no video card is required! Have a look at the HDVR feature set:

• High Definition Volume Rendering®
• Tools for 3D measurement and fusion with polygonal models
• Interactive modification of all rendering parameters
• Instant point-and-click segmentation
• Instant free-hand-cut segmentation
• Classification of voxels with identical scalar values to different transfer functions
• Toggle lighting function for any transfer function segment
• Interactive fly-through auto-navigation
• Interactive arbitrary cut planes
• Unified slab thickness
• User-defined adaptive control of speed vs. quality
• Instant point-and-click measurement with subvoxel precision
• Support of stereoscopic mode
• Gradient modulation control
• Non-blocking/blocking execution
• Network data compression: JPEG lossy/lossless 8/12/16
• Volumetric shadowing

OK, I'm sold. And so was Amicas:

”Fovia’s HDVR technology offers unrivaled 3D functionality to our PACS customers for reviewing large volume data directly within AMICAS PACS,” states Rodney Hawkins, vice president of product management at AMICAS. “With Fovia’s 3D engine as an intrinsic part of AMICAS PACS, radiologists will clearly experience higher productivity gains and more efficient reading workflow as a result.”

Interestingly, there is another PACS company working with Fovia, a company that already does a lot of 3D work, and even has one of the best-selling 3D Workstations with some Advantages. But this particular company likes to find additional talent where it can:

See why GE Healthcare, the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of medical imaging equipment, has recently licensed our imaging solution.

I guess this is quite a vote of confidence. Let's just hope for Amicas' sake that GE doesn't actually buy Fovia. . .