Digital Lightbox© Brings Digital Images to Life—for Better Treatment Planning

July 31, 2008 – Munich – Neurosurgeons at the university hospital rechts der Isar in Munich can now utilize and share patient MRI and CT data both before and during surgery thanks to one of the latest innovations from medical technology company BrainLAB.

Digital Lightbox©, an interactive multi-touch display, enables clinicians to quickly access and manipulate patient data stored on a hospital’s Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS). Displaying 3D data in high resolution, Digital Lightbox promotes better patient diagnosis, treatment planning and collaboration. The hospital is the first site in the world to utilize Digital Lightbox technology.

Digital data from multiple sources can be quickly and easily accessed from a single location. Instead of working with static images, clinicians can combine and manipulate MRI, CT, x-ray, and PET data, extracting more value from the information. With the latest information at their fingertips, they can make better-informed decisions during diagnosis and treatment planning stages to the benefit of their patients.

'Digital Lightbox makes our work much easier,' explains Professor Bernhard Meyer, Director of the neurosurgery clinic at the hospital rechts der Isar. 'Patients often come to us with different MRI, CT, PET and x-ray images. In the past, we've had to wait until that data has been imported and converted from CD before we could evaluate it.

With the Digital Lightbox touchscreen interface, we can access these images right away in the same format. Digital Lightbox also allows us to fuse MRI images from neurosurgery with PET data from nuclear medicine via simple touchscreen commands. This saves my colleagues and me a lot of time.'

Digital Lightbox replaces the conventional light box used to observe analog x-ray images. Connected to the hospital PACS, the new digital platform can be installed both in meeting rooms and in operating rooms, where clinicians can then access, manipulate, and utilize data for surgery planning. By displaying the human body in 3D, Digital Lightbox helps clinicians to more clearly demonstrate to patients what effects a disease can have and which procedures may be necessary.

Digital Lightbox enables clinicians to select the most valuable images from large amounts of existing medical data. Ergonomic touchscreen technology with zoom functionality makes working with data easy and effective.

Clinicians can intuitively navigate within pictures and between settings. Image scrolling can be performed with one finger; zooming in and out of images with two. Images from different sources can also be fused easily. A measure functionality enables clinicians to set size and other dimensions.

Greater flexibility in treatment planning

By integrating the communication platform iPlan® Net from BrainLAB, clinicians can perform treatment planning with Digital Lightbox or any PC connected to the hospital network. This eliminates bottlenecks, as busy planning stations are rendered obsolete. iPlan Net helps to simplify the clinical workflow and save costs, as well as strengthen and simplify interdisciplinary collaboration between neurosurgery, nuclear medicine and radiology departments.

Digital Lightbox can be installed in any hospital environment and is compatible with all established image formats, such as DICOM, jpg, bmp, tif, png, avi, wmv. Planning data can be transferred directly from Digital Lightbox to surgical navigation systems designed for precise and minimally invasive procedures.