CereTom™ Mobile CT Scanner Wins Medical Design Excellence Award

Spellman High Voltage Electronics Corporation is proud to announce that NeuroLogica's CereTom™ Mobile CT Scanner has received a 2006 Medical Design Excellence Award. NeuroLogica's innovative CereTom™ Mobile CT Scanner was developed to address the time sensitive, critical care of head-trauma patients in an ER or ambulatory environment. Spellman's contribution to this life-enhancing technology is an advanced Monoblock® X-ray source designed for deployment directly onto the fast rotating CT (computed tomography) gantry.

The Medical Design Excellence Awards competition is organized and presented by Canon Communications LLC (Los Angeles) and is the only awards program that exclusively recognizes contributions and advances in the design of medical products. Entries are evaluated on the basis of their design and engineering features, including innovative use of materials, user-related functions that improve healthcare delivery and change traditional medical attitudes or practices, features that provide enhanced benefits to the patient, and the ability of the product development team to overcome design and engineering challenges so that the product meets its clinical objectives. A comprehensive review of the entries was performed by an impartial, multidisciplinary panel of third-party jurors with expertise in biomedical engineering, human factors, industrial design, medicine, and diagnostics.

The challenge, according to Minh Tran, Spellman's Engineering Manager of Custom Products, was to design and develop a very powerful, yet lightweight and compact X-ray generator for NeuroLogica's revolutionary CereTom™ Mobile CT Scanner. High-resolution CT scanners are typically stationary units weighing over four tons and require substantial cooling systems. This has limited installation to climate-controlled imaging suites. Utilizing the cutting-edge technology of NeuroLogica and Spellman, the highly specialized design team developed an impressive, air-cooled, high voltage, high precision Monoblock® capable of producing over 1.1kW for a minimum of 150 seconds. The CereTom™ Monoblock® weighs in at less than 85 pounds, perfectly matching the weight requirement for mounting onto the high speed gantry without forfeiting revolution speed.

"The key to the success of this project," Minh Tran explains, "was Spellman's philosophy of working closely with NeuroLogica as an integral part of their development team, as opposed to the typical Vendor/Customer relationship. We were able to meet all goals, in some respects exceeding the requirements with on-schedule delivery and minimal technical issues after release."

According to Eric Bailey, President of Neuro-Logica, "The CereTom™ is a breakthrough in healthcare for the brain. Already it has shown its life-saving potential in major US hospitals. The challenge in designing such a revolutionary type of CT system is that all historic design experience had to be replaced with "thinking out of the box." It required a close relationship between the companies that transcends a normal commercial transaction. We are very proud of our collective achievement and are glad to share this prestigious award with our key supplier, Spellman High Voltage. Congratulations and thank you to Minh and the entire Spellman team."

The 2006 Medical Design Excellence Award winners will be honored at a June 7 ceremony during the Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) East conference and Exposition, at New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Gold and silver award recipients will be announced at this time. For information about the medical Design Excellence Awards, visit the MDEA Web site at www.MDEAwards.com. Visit www.mdmeast.com to learn more about the MD&M East show. Technical literature and additional information on all Spellman products is available by calling Spellman High Voltage at (631) 630-3000.

Spellman High Voltage Electronics is the world's leading independent manufacturer of high voltage DC power supplies, Monoblock® X-ray generators and power systems for medical and industrial applications, semiconductor manufacturing, scientific instrumentation, telecommunications, X-ray and automatic test equipment. We specialize in providing custom designs to suit unique requirements. Spellman is headquartered in the U.S. and has facilities in the U.K., Japan, China, and Mexico that provide design, manufacturing, and service to our customers throughout the world.

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