Healthcare Sector
As the worlds’ population grows and gets older, more and more people thrive to reach their full potential and to lead a healthy, high-quality life far into old age.
At Siemens, we play a unique role, supporting healthcare professionals to do their job by providing medical technologies that help deliver a better quality of healthcare and enable ever-improving degrees of individual care through advanced imaging, diagnostics, therapy, and healthcare IT solutions. We provide innovative technology to customize medicine, enabling better differentiated diagnostic results and more distinct therapy decisions.
With around 51,000 employees worldwide and our presence throughout the world, revenue worth 13.6 billion euros, and profits of approximately 1.8 billion euros in fiscal 2012, Siemens Healthcare helps ensure the next generation of breakthroughs become a reality. Our commitment to advancing human health, however, goes beyond delivering the latest diagnostic and treatment technology to our customers. We support their success through close collaboration and mutual partnerships.
Together, we innovate to advance human health.
Kirk A. Frey, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Siemens at ECR 2013
Alzheimer’s disease is truly one of the cruelest diseases that strikes the elderly, at the height of years that are supposed to be “golden.” There is no known cure. Further, today’s most effective drug therapies for Alzheimer’s only assuage symptoms, doing very little to slow progression of the disease.
Progressive mental decline and aging have been noted in history for hundreds of years. The brain lesions between cells are abnormal, insoluble protein deposits called amyloid plaques. Amyloid plaque is widely believed to be a precursor to another kind of abnormal protein, the neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), or hairlike threads that exist within nerve cells of Alzheimer’s patients.
Amyloid plaques are of great interest to researchers, including Kirk A. Frey, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, and Adam S. Fleisher, MD, of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. “The interplay of what goes wrong in the brain in the processing of proteins is very important,” says Frey.
For researchers and clinicians, the challenge was that amyloids in the brain could previously only be detected during an autopsy. That now has changed, thanks to an innovative imaging solution unveiled by Siemens: The new imaging solution is multi-pronged, encompassing four unique elements – the manufacturing and distribution of a PET (positron emission tomography) imaging biomarker, the Biograph® mCT PET•CT scanner, syngo®.PET Amyloid Plaque1 neurology quantification software, and the support network an imaging institution needs to plan, implement, and successfully operate amyloid imaging services.
Dementia is a late stage of Alzheimer’s disease, explains Fleisher. ”Amyloid plaque starts in the brain 10 to 20 years before symptoms are exhibited. Research is being done to see if, through the detection of amyloid plaque, it may be possible to predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease years before symptoms appear,” he says.
A key component of the Siemens imaging solution is the software, syngo.PET Amyloid Plaque, which takes a patient’s PET amyloid exam and automatically registers it against a reference model of a PET amyloid brain. When combined with visual assessment, these capabilities assist physicians in making an interpretation of the PET image. Siemens new Biograph mCT offers the highest image quality2 at the industry’s finest volumetric resolution of 87 cubic-millimeter and accurate, quantifiable results.
The third element of the solution is the PET imaging biomarker manufacturing and distribution expertise of PETNET Solutions, a Siemens company. Siemens’ PETNET Solutions employs a dedicated staff and a fully integrated operational support infrastructure for the production of amyloid imaging biomarkers.
Siemens will present this imaging solution at ECR 2013, together with other innovations for clinical detection, more accurate diagnosis, and more targeted therapy at lower dose levels. This is what Siemens provides: Answers, visualized.
Come and see our products and solutions during this years’ ECR, Hall extension Expo A, Austria Center, Vienna.
Read the complete article with Kirk A. Frey and Adam S. Fleisher on Alzheimer’s research here.
1syngo.PET Amyloid Plaque quantification software is intended for use only with approved amyloid radiopharmaceuticals in the country of use. Users should review the drug labeling for approved uses.
2Based on competitive information available at time of publication. Data on file.
September 29 was World Heart Day.
For the heart’s sake
An entire day dedicated to one organ: the World Heart Day, celebrated on September 29, is an initiative of the Geneva-based World Heart Federation (WHF) aimed at raising public awareness for the risk of cardiac diseases and stroke, and promoting prevention. Under the theme of “One World, One Home, One Heart,” WHF’s more than 200 member organizations and partners around the world offered a broad spectrum of activities, including scientific forums, public discussions and presentations, concerts, and sporting events.
Statistics underscore the importance of raising public awareness of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. They are the most common causes of death worldwide, claiming more than 17.5 million lives annually. The World Health Organization projects that in 2030, some 23 million people – the equivalent of the population of Australia – will die of cardiovascular diseases. A major contributing factor is unhealthy lifestyle, but also genetic factors play a role. The good news is, that most of the relevant cardiovascular risk factors are modifiable: Diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, and high cholesterol levels can be treated, smoking can be ceased, weight can be lost. Other risk factors like age, gender, or familial disposition can not. Therefore education of the public is needed, everywhere, also in the emerging countries, as western lifestyle gets more and more adopted there.
“Deaths from cardiovascular diseases represent the highest proportion of non-communicable diseases,” notes Johanna Ralston, CEO of the World Heart Federation. The goal is to reduce this rate by 25 percent by 2025 by diagnosing cardiovascular diseases early and treating them with specific therapies. “We know how to avert these deaths, using proven and affordable interventions – now we need to put our knowledge into practice,” Ralston adds.
State-of-the-art cardiology knowledge and its measures can help to decrease the number of deaths through life style change, drug therapy, interventional therapies, device therapies, and surgery when necessary. Cardiologists must always ask themselves how the new standards of care can be integrated into day-to-day clinical practices as efficient as possible, while maintaining optimal patient outcomes. And the trend will be more and more toward a holistic approach, believes Professor Junbo Ge, the head of Cardiology at Zhong Shan University Hospital Shanghai: “In the long run, we will have to reconsider medicine. We need to teach young doctors to take a more holistic approach to patients,” remarks the President of the Asian-Pacific Society of Interventional Cardiology. “The future of cardiology? It lies in a different approach to patients.”
Ideally, people never become patients. How? By a heart-healthy lifestyle including adequate physical exercise and a balanced diet. World Heart Day 2012 was a good reminder to think about this very important organ, not just on one day but throughout lifetime.
“I’d rather have my house burn down…”
In Cambodia there is only one doctor for every 4,000 Cambodians. Medical treatment is also very expensive. A Cambodian saying sums up the problems of the healthcare system: “I’d rather have my house burn down than having a family member fall ill.”
The German section of “Doctors of the World” first started to get involved in Kampong Cham back in 1999. Originally the mission focused on surgical treatment of children who were suffering from cleft lips and palates or other facial deformities. Today the doctors are treating everybody they can – from severe burns to road accidents.
In a joint project with “Doctors of the World” Siemens Healthcare has donated two ultrasound systems to the clinic in Kampong Cham. The goal is to offer medical treatment to those who can not afford it otherwise.
To ensure that future patients can also take advantage of ultrasound examinations, Siemens has added an extra term to their donation: Ultrasound scans on the donated devices need to be free of charge. Additionally the doctors have trained their Cambodian colleagues on how to use the new system to guarantee a continuous stream of reliable diagnosis.
Siemens makes healthcare more accessible to more people around the globe.
Every minute counts for stroke patients.
Time is brain
Professor Bernd Ringelstein is the director of the clinic and polyclinic for neurology at the University Hospital of Münster, where he heads the stroke unit. Every minute counts for his patients – because with every moment that elapses after a stroke occurs, more healthy brain tissue is damaged.
The more tissue is damaged, the more extensive the health consequences, which can range from long-term physical limitations such as paralysis and speech impediments to even death. The sooner treatment can begin – recanalization of the occluded cerebral artery, for example – the more brain cells can be saved and the better the chances that the patient will be able to lead an independent life with little or no neurological complications.
And because “time is brain,” the stroke unit at the University Hospital of Münster keeps a team of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, social workers, and ergotherapists dedicated exclusively to stroke patients. Patient care that follows clearly defined and coordinated processes is important in acute cases but also in follow-up treatment. Professor Ringelstein worked with Siemens to evaluate whether these clinical processes were optimally synchronized in his clinic. The “Act on Stroke” consulting model is tailored to the clinical processes in stroke treatment and designed to identify potential improvements. Professor Ringelstein can now look back on what he calls an “impressive and conclusive analysis of our organized stroke unit care” in his institution. Siemens manages to “raise exactly the right subjects with their appraisal of our defiencies. The recommended actions will help us to overcome efficiently residual obstacles within our stroke processes.”
Siemens supports its customers with not only in-depth consultation but also imaging systems and software applications. Computer tomography (CT), magnetic resonance tomography (MRT), and interventional angiography are life-or-death procedures for diagnosing, treating, and monitoring the therapy of stroke patients.
Products from Siemens: revolutionary and groundbreaking – yesterday and today.
Revolutionary medical technology: Siemens invented it!
With its innovative diagnostic methods, Siemens is a pioneer of medical technology. Many of its inventions are groundbreaking to this day. One of the roots of medical technology dates back to the 19th-century in Erlangen, Germany. In 1877, Erwin Moritz Reininger founded a workshop that later became a cornerstone of Siemens medical technology. In 1901, the first Nobel prize was awarded to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen for the discovery of X-rays: a sensation at the time. As Röntgen received the Nobel prize, Wilhelmine was born. When the businessman’s daughter was 16 years old, she developed a terrible toothache and was waiting nervously in a dentist’s office. The doctor comforted her: “We have an X-ray machine and a modern dental drill. We’ll use the X-ray machine to examine you and determine exactly where the problem is. We can then drill in a manner that is as pain-free as possible.” A dental X-ray machine was placed on the market at the beginning of 1913, and the Triumph dental drill, which greatly reduced pain with 1,200 revolutions per minute, had already been available since the beginning of 1903. In the meantime, dental drills with 400,000 revolutions per minute have become the standard. This was not the last time that Wilhelmine and her family were confronted with a Siemens invention.
Hearing aid in a handbag
A few years later, Wilhemine’s father Ferdinand needed a hearing aid. Siemens had already brought a new innovation to the market as well; one that replaced the old-fashioned eartrumpet. In the 1920s, portable hearing aids were already available such as the Phonophor, which women carried in their handbags and men carried in their suit pockets. In the 1950s, pocket hearing aids were developed into hearing aids that could be worn behind the ear. The first in-ear hearing aid from Siemens, which was much less noticeable, was on the market in 1983. Today there are tiny, waterproof hearing aids that can hardly be noticed and that can be adjusted with software.
Mobile X-rays in the 1930s
Hearing aids are a medical area in which the company is surely a pioneer. As Wilhelmine traveled to the Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, she saw something else in addition to the ski jump that became a revolutionary medical invention at the time: the X-ray sphere. With the small and mobile X-ray device that was introduced in 1933, athletes could be examined on location after an accident. In the meantime, digital X-ray machines such as the Mobilett Mira – a digital X-ray machine with a wireless detector introduced in 2011 – transfer image data via WLAN to an integrated imaging system. And, the X-ray tubes from 1934 have been further developed. In 2003, the Straton tubes patented by Siemens made sharp pictures of a beating heart possible for the first time. Thanks to the short cooling time of these tubes, computed tomography machines can take many pictures in a short period of time. In addition, modern X-ray and CT machines operate with lower radiation exposure.
Innovations for people and their health
All of this was possible because Siemens’ medical technology was continuously developed further. In the 1960s, the pacemaker by Siemens-Elema in Sweden was an innovation that attracted a great deal of attention. At the time, Siemens assisted with the world’s first pacemaker implantation to a person, paving the way for modern cardiology in medicine.
The innovations that Siemens created for ultrasound units, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) machines, and many other areas are also indispensable. The descendants of Wilhelmine still profit today from innovations from Siemens. For example, her great-granddaughter Christine, who is now expecting her first child at the age of 41. Thanks to Siemens innovations in ultrasound technology, she can already ensure during pregnancy that her daughter is healthy.
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