Providence St. Joseph Hospital Announces First Commercial Use in U.S. of Four-Dimensional Lung Imagery

ORANGE, Calif., April 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Doctors at Providence St Joseph Hospital in Orange, Calif., today announced the first commercial use of 4DMedical's unique XV imaging solution to help clinicians better understand lung conditions. 4DMedical, an Australian medical technology company, provided the FDA-cleared, patented, four-dimensional lung imaging solution used to gain insight into regional lung performance of two patients, one with asthma and another with COPD.

"With this new imaging tool, physicians can detect areas of high and low ventilation with pinpoint accuracy across all parts of the lung, in all phases of the breath," said Ray Casciari, MD, a pulmonary physician with more than 40 years of experience at Providence St Joseph Hospital, Orange. "The resulting ventilation report is extremely clear and easily understood by providing clinicians with a color-coded and dynamic visualization of the patient's breathing lung, enhanced with four-dimensional animation."

Doctors are considering the use of four-dimensional scans in treatment plans for patients with long-term COVID.

"Until now, much of the attention to COVID has been around the epidemiology of its spread, and more recently regarding the effect of vaccines," said Andreas Fouras, PhD, CEO of 4DMedical. "Health authorities are increasingly focusing on how to assess, understand and manage the lingering effects of those expressing long-term COVID."

4DMedical's XV Technology™ is a cloud subscription service and can be implemented immediately with no capital expenditure by using existing hospital and clinical infrastructure. Imaging departments electronically transmit radiographic images collected with existing fluoroscopy equipment to 4DMedical. The XV Technology software automatically analyzes and applies its proprietary algorithms to identify and quantify regional functional impairment in both lungs. The resulting report numerically quantifies and graphically displays the regional impairments, which can then be used by clinicians to better understand the patient's current functional state and assess the most effective therapeutic action. 

"The potential for 4DMedical's XV Technology to play a role in surveillance of lung function is unprecedented, along with the capacity to monitor the effectiveness of pharmaceutical and other interventions for the treatment of those diseases," said Jeremy Zoch, PhD, MHA, FACHE, chief executive of Providence St Joseph. "Doctors have never been able to see lungs with this level of richness and detail before. We're proud of our commitment to bring the latest in life-changing technology to our doctors, patients and community."