Canon Medical Systems Advancing Partnership with ASCs

Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) are healthcare facilities focused on providing same-day surgical care, including diagnostic and preventive procedures. ASCs can provide a high level of care without the need for patients to go to a hospital or clinic, reducing the load on major healthcare facilities, shortening waiting times for patients, and yet providing the same, high level of care. Alongside other medical specialties, they are increasingly important in interventional cardiology. Canon Medical Systems provides high quality imaging solutions for ASCs that are proving invaluable. Our ceiling mounted and floor mounted systems include Canon Alphenix Interventional X-Ray with Fysicon QMAPP® hemodynamics solutions and devices. Additionally, we offer customized finance options, real-time 3D site-planning, continued operational support, and more. VISIONS Special explores how Peak Heart & Vascular in Arizona, USA, has found the Alphenix Core + an asset in their ASC practice.

They are also often more conveniently located than hospitals which makes access easier, and often cheaper for patients.

Healthcare professionals working within ASCs generally feel they have more control over their workand work schedules, which can lead to better pre- and post-operative care.

Peak Heart & Vascular, based in Arizona, USA, was established in 2020 to provide treatment for the full spectrum of cardiovascular diseases, including coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, all types of arrhythmias, peripheral artery disease, thoracic and abdominal aneurysms, and carotid artery stenosis. It is staffed by cardiologists, interventional cardiologists, electrophysiologists, and vascular surgeons.

“The ASC along with Office Based Lab (OBL) really allows us to provide a more complete experience for patients,” remarked Dr. Tarpan Patel, Interventional Cardiologist at Peak Heart & Vascular. “Within such a facility, you can control your staffing along with your inventory and your workflow processes, and really create an efficient model for patient experience. You can create a more cost-effective experience for your payers, along with your patients. And, you can really have a full control of the outcomes that come out of this. In the hospital setting, unfortunately, schedules are bound by the hospital administration. Many procedures have now come to the ASC along with OBL space which also have further allowed us to give this great experience to our patients.”

“The interventional cardiology space is really moving increasingly to the outpatient environment,” added Stephen Smith, Vascular Surgeon at Peak Heart & Vascular. “Our practice is very busy and we're actively looking to recruit other physicians. We have opportunities from a geographic standpoint. Not only do we have a large patient base in the Phoenix Metropolitan area, but we also have a growing business of patients in the Northern Arizona areas of Cottonwood, Prescott, and Flagstaff. I think that as we continue to grow, we are going to need to add partners and also facilities in the northern part of the state as well.”

“It's quite amazing how many angles I can move the camera around. I’m amazed by the ability of the floor mounted unit,” explained Dr. Patel. “I often perform coronary interventions, along with peripheral interventions and am frequently changing access sites on the same patients within minutes. I'm able to move my camera to position myself better to save my back, make it easier on the patient themselves, and reduce radiation exposure to myself along with the staff.”

“I've had experience using other systems in a hospital setting, and we were not able to do that, as compared to the Canon system that we have currently,” he continued. “I find everything that we do easy on the Alphenix Core + system. Even deep vein cases and iliac vein stenting, the toughest coronary cases, where you have dense calcium, or if we are treating a very morbidly obese patient. This system has not failed us once.”

“I like to move around, depending on where I'm going to be working on the patient. So, sometimes I'm accessing left groin, sometimes I’m accessing right. And so, what's nice about the Alphenix Core + is that with a touch of button, we can move my working screen from the left side of the big screen to the right side the big screen, so, it is a lot closer to me,” said Dr. Smith. “With just a few little touches, I can go from road mapping to the regular screen. When I'm doing Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS), we can throw IVUS up on the screen. We have our vitals up there all the time, but we can move around where and enlarge the screen, and if I really want to see it well, we can make that full screen (58-inch screen). Really easy workflow. And the built-in tablet comes with that too.”

To optimize their efficiency, the team aim to reduce the amount of time that they spend in between cases. The mobility of the components of the Alphenix Core +, including its screen, table and camera, contribute to this.

“The tablet has been amazing,” said Dr. Patel. “As an operator, along with my RT that is with me in the case, we are interchangeable now, because we have a tablet. I do not have to rely on a third person to go behind the lab in the control room to change the settings. The other amazing feature on the tablet is I'm able to change the screen configuration at any moment so if in the middle of the case changes or we change your different access site and I want the hemodynamics on a different part of the screen, I don't need someone else to do it for me. I could do it myself even, which reduces minutes in the case, which means a lot when you're trying to get through nine patients in a day and get your staff home sooner. Every time we have to keep our staff an hour later, that's an additional cost to the surgery center. And so, every minute really matters.”

Monitoring patients is critical throughout the interventional cardiology process. The Alphenix Core + comes with Fysicon QMAPP (a Canon company) - a patient monitoring solution that accommodates all stages of the patient experience.

“We do a lot of coronary PCI, as well as electrophysiology. We work with Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) ablations in here. And so the hemodynamic monitoring is important for us, “said Dr. Smith. “Integrating it into the system directly had been really nice.”

“We use QMAPP the most in coronary cases,” said Dr. Patel. “We can use a tablet to create the zero. In general, that can be the most annoying thing that we have to do when we're doing IFR measurements or FFR measurements. Previously, we were constantly having to zero and then re-zero throughout the case. And the fact that you have a tablet readily available, and you can just click on a button without having to ask someone else to do it for you. It just makes the case go much quicker.”

The Alphenix Core + is not the first Canon system that Peak Heart & Vascular have acquired. The service and support that they have received from Canon has also been important in their choice, as well as high product quality.

“Our whole goal is designed around again keeping the level of quality at, or better than, hospital standards and having made that decision, we began to look at partners to use. We actually went on a site visit and viewed in a hospital that had multiple systems set up and were able to interview essentially the radiologist and the cardiologist who were using Canon systems, and they had nothing but glowing things saying about it,” said Dr. Smith. “Quite some time has passed and we've been very happy with it, in fact. This is our second system. We've got a third getting built. And it's been a great partnership for us. From an image quality standpoint, it’s on par with the best.”
“I am very happy with the partnership with Canon,” he emphasized. “As far as equipment goes, and that's the Number One thing, that's been great, as well as working with the Canon Medical team, their support team, and the Canon Finance team.”

“Anybody that's looking to put something like this together quickly learns that this is a big undertaking financially and a lot of capital is required,” he continued. “This is not just for the equipment but for the build out and the financing of the building and the tenant improvements associated with it. So, it's very important have a financial partner in this with you. And it's very nice to have it related to one of your main partners, which is the biggest piece of equipment, who is an integral in setting the whole thing up. that has actually been one of the easier steps in helping the thing get up off the ground.”