Konica Minolta Healthcare Advances X-ray Imaging with Commercial Launch of Dynamic Digital Radiography on the KDR Advanced U-Arm

Wayne, NJ, June 2, 2020 – Representing a new era in digital radiography, Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc., announces the commercial availability of the KDR® Advanced U-Arm, incorporating the award winning Dynamic Digital Radiography (DDR) capability. The KDR U-Arm with DDR recently received FDA clearance. DDR, or X-ray that Moves, provides a series of individual digital images acquired at high speed and low dose. The resulting cine loop presents a diagnostic-quality view of anatomical structures while the patient is in motion, enabling orthopedic clinicians to observe changes over time with enriched diagnostic information. The digital cines can be enhanced, quantified, reprocessed and replayed at normal, fast and slow motion, as well as one frame at a time.

Orthopedists at Emory Healthcare, part of Emory University in Atlanta, are studying joint motion in extremities and spine with DDR. “Dynamic Digital Radiography is already changing how we can manage our orthopedic patients,” says Eric Wagner, MD, MSc, Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Director of Upper Extremity Surgery Research at Emory Healthcare. “By watching how the joint moves, we have more insight into the patient’s condition and greater ability to refine our diagnosis and predict how they will respond to treatment. Without question, I believe dynamic X-ray will improve patient management in orthopedics and become the standard of care in the future.”

The KDR System is ideal for orthopedic practices and with the dynamic imaging capability it gives clinicians the ability to see what they have not been able to see before. DDR is X-ray, not fluoroscopy. Orthopedists can quantify the dynamic relationship of bones and soft tissue through the full range of motion and image joints, tendons and ligaments in the shoulder, knee, wrist and spine in the most clinically relevant position(s). The KDR Advanced U-Arm is cost effective, serving as a standard X-ray system for static imaging in addition to DDR. With this multifunctionality, it supports the goal of reducing healthcare expenditures for individual practices and healthcare institutions.

“Our investments in technology are focused on personalizing care for the individual patient and bringing incremental value to our customers,” says Kirsten Doerfert, Sr. VP of Marketing, Konica Minolta Healthcare. “DDR delivers actionable insights in orthopedics that cannot be replicated by any other commercially available technology. The introduction of DDR on the KDR Advanced U-arm enables a whole new level of diagnostic intelligence using digital radiography. There is significant potential to achieve higher quality individualized care with greater access, at a lower cost.”

The versatile KDR System features Konica Minolta’s most advanced DR technology with an array of design innovations to optimize workflow, increase staff efficiency and enhance clinical outcomes. It performs standard X-rays and supports all common views, including weight bearing studies. The system features full body imaging without the need for an expensive long detector or dedicated system, and table stitching for pediatrics. Konica Minolta’s state-of-the-art AeroDR® HD 17 x 17 inch Cesium iodide detector is fully integrated and provides extremely high-definition imaging with extreme resolution without increasing patient dose.