Eklin Medical Systems, Inc., a leader in digital radiography (DR), PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) and Practice Information Management software (PIMS) for the veterinary care market, announced the introduction of a comprehensive positioning guide for capturing diagnostic equine digital radiographs. The guide features Sheika, a petite gray Arabian mare, who was rescued by the founders of Peninsula Equine Medical Center before she was about to be euthanized by her owner. The 65-page guide provides a quick reference resource for veterinarians and technicians when imaging a horse’s feet, pasterns, fetlocks, stifles, skull, cervical spine and other pertinent anatomy.
“This is an extremely thorough and easy to follow guide for imaging a wide range of equine anatomy with digital radiography,” said Russ Peterson, DVM, founder of Peninsula Equine Medical Center. “It is especially useful for new personnel who have less familiarity with using DR. The guide quickly illustrates proper positioning of the panel and camera while providing other helpful suggestions in acquiring superb images. We are happy Sheika could help in illustrating this important educational tool.”
In addition to Sheika, Peterson, a long time Eklin customer, also provided the facilities for the guide’s photography and imaging sessions. Peninsula Equine Center is a busy equine practice located in Menlo Park, California, 40 miles south of San Francisco.
The story of Sheika began when Peterson’s wife Jan Peterson was at a popular recreation area nearby to their practice when she spotted Sheika lying down in shoulder-high grass. Sheika’s stomach was bloated and she was suffering from a dangerous episode of grass founder disease (a form of laminitis). Grass founder is a devastating foot disease which causes the connection between the hoof and the underlying bone to become inflamed and weakened, resulting in severe lameness. It is caused by the horse eating too much green grass.
Jan Peterson located the owner who, upon learning about Sheika’s diagnosis, decided to have her euthanized. Fortunately, Jan had a different idea. Convincing the owner to sign over all legal rights to Sheika, Jan took her home. Along with the help of her husband and the other skilled veterinary care professionals at Peninsula Equine, Sheika not only recovered, but was later adopted by a loving family and recently became the star of Eklin’s digital radiography guide.
“Sheika is a beautiful, sweet-natured horse who deserves a good home and life,” said Jan Peterson. “We are so thankful she recovered and became a member of such a wonderful family. It is terrific to know that she will be helping in the diagnoses and care of other ailing horses as the model for this landmark DR guide.”
Just as digital cameras have made photography easier and more efficient by eliminating film, the Eklin RapidStudy(TM) DR system provides the veterinarian with a radiographic image that can be viewed immediately on a high-resolution monitor without the need for film development. The extremely forgiving exposure latitude of the Eklin DR sensor panels eliminates technique associated retakes and allows even less experienced office staff to produce high quality diagnostic images on the first try. Eklin’s instant image also means that when the patient is removed from the table the operator is confident that the study is completed.
The Eklin DR system also offers sophisticated image processing tools, giving the veterinarian much greater depth of information that can be enlarged or manipulated for far better detail. Eklin offers the industry’s only full-size 14″x17″ sensor panel. Images can be stored and archived for future evaluation using the Eklin PACS which is completely conformant to DICOM 3.0 standards developed in the human market over the past 10 years. The DICOM standards are used by hospitals and clinics around the world.
“Turnover of medical personnel is always a challenge for any practice,” said Greg Fava, vice president of Customer Care for Eklin. “Through our Eklin University department, we developed the guide to assist our customers with training new staff members and help serve as a convenient reminder for anyone using the DR system. At Eklin, we feel it is critical to be a part of the education process and support diagnostic confidence for practices using our system. We are grateful to Peninsula Equine and especially Sheika for their invaluable assistance.”
The guide took several months to develop and was reviewed by leading equine practitioners and technicians. The guide can be purchased from Eklin at a nominal cost.
About Eklin Medical Systems, Inc.
With hundreds of systems installed in private practices and universities around the globe, Eklin Medical Systems, Inc. is one of the world’s leading providers of veterinary PACS, practice management and digital radiography products. The company focuses on applications where speed, portability, and increased practice efficiency are critically important.