Blackford Analysis
With 1,200-1,600 images per examination, protocols used for lung screening often require a much larger dataset compared to some types of CT examinations. Depending on the patient, there can be anywhere from one to four or more previous examinations, resulting in many prior exams. The time taken to load and identify prior regions of interest on each of these subsequent examinations can be considerable. Research at Stony Brook University, New York, used deformable registration provided by Blackford to study how PACS-integrated automatic deformable chest CT registration reduces radiologist time to match lung nodule locations across serial exams. The study found that matching lung nodule locations across serial chest CT exams was 56% faster using Blackford deformable registration [1]. Based on feedback from customer sites that have Blackford Smart Localizer integrated into PACS, we have identified five key ways that Blackford can assist in lung screening workflow:
“Using Blackford Smart Localizer has drastically improved my efficiency in interpreting lung cancer screening exams” Robert J French, MD. Lahey Hospital and Medical Center