This year's National Congress of Radiology and Medical Imaging in Craiova gathered professionals working in radiology, imaging and connected areas, who gathered in the university city in southern Romania to learn the latest trends and technical developments in their sector. Siemens Healthineers, a supporter of the congress, plans to take further its partnership with the flagship event, says Claudia Oanea, Managing Director Siemens Healthineers Romania.

After the inauguration of a NAEOTOM Alpha CT scanner this summer at the Cardiomed Center in Târgu Mureș, the company is already studying how the equipment is serving medical professionals and how its performance compares to the current standard.

Meanwhile, education remains a priority that takes many forms. In the recently-opened Siemens Healthineers Reference Center at Ovidius Clinical Hospital in Constanța various training sessions and events take place. The company is looking to expand on this type of partnership, and another similar reference center will open in the country in the coming year. Such sites show there is advanced expertise and competencies in using and managing Siemens solutions in the medical field, but also to provide high-quality healthcare services, using the company's technology. Another area of focus for educational activities is internal, covering the training of the staff that interacts with clients to ensure they can provide appropriate support.

More on Siemens Healthineers's priorities in the country in the Q&A below.

How does Siemens Healthineers approach the local market and its particularities?

Claudia Oanea: Siemens Healthineers has one approach. This becomes, perhaps, a bit customized in every country, taking into account the local particularities. Of course, we always try to bring to the doctors' and medical units' attention the latest technology without losing track of our current and recurrent activity. Because the equipment is updated every year and we always have something new on the market technology-wise.

When it comes to Romania – although the approach is unitary because, in the end, we talk about the aid that the equipment provides in diagnosis – maybe it is a bit different in the public sector vs. the private one.

It is equally important to understand that Siemens Healthineers is not just a company selling equipment because worldwide, in 70% of the cases when a doctor needs to make a diagnosis, screening is required. Then it is obvious we are no longer talking about selling equipment but about a partnership and even more; if we take into account the lifespan of an equipment, of at least ten years, it is obvious we are partners because the company sells it but also supports the maintenance and service part, the training of the operators, of the doctors and so on. So we are talking about a partnership, not just selling equipment.

The program included a presentation of the NAEOTOM Alpha scanner, with one such equipment present in a hospital in Romania. What is the coverage in the region?

Claudia Oanea: This is a CT scanner with a new technology - photon counting. It is the latest technology, the top of the range. It is a change in technology, and this is where we need to start from. This photon-counting technology is the one with which we reinvent physics. At this point, there are six such pieces of equipment in Central and Eastern Europe, one of them in Romania. It exists in Romania because of the wish of a medical team who understood from the very beginning what it means and the help it gives to a healthcare team, and wanted to have it in the private system. Today, it is running, it has patients, and the doctors are extremely pleased with it.

At the next event of the Radiology Society, we will present the results of the studies done on this equipment. We are already at study level in Romania. We carry out studies concerning the professionals using the equipment – the exceptional situations they encountered, how it helped them, and what is the difference between the standard version and this equipment. But we will have more information and data for the next congress.

What are Siemens Healthineers's priorities for the operations in Romania?

Claudia Oanea: The education component is very much part of our strategy, and we look at how we can support doctors and healthcare professionals in the area of education.

At this point, we have the first reference site at the Ovidius Clinical Hospital in Constanța. It is a private hospital which received this reference site accreditation because it fulfilled all the criteria that Siemens Healthineers requires. We have there a special training hall; we hold regularly themed meetings, either with operators, with physicists, resident doctors, or specialist doctors, and this is the educational area we can support at this point.

At the same time, we want to expand on this, and for sure, we will see in the coming year at least another reference site in Romania, maybe in another area.

Moving forward, we wish to partner with the Romanian Radiology Society because only together can we contribute to the education and professional development of medical teams but also physicists working in certain areas.

Last but not least, for us, it is important every day to support our employees, service engineers, application specialists, and product specialists so that they are well informed and extremely well prepared to support in their turn what the market has education-wise. This is our internal characteristic – to always ensure that every colleague who is connected with and interacts either with the equipment or the medical community is well prepared to offer tangible support.

What do you hope participants at this congress will be left with?

Claudia Oanea: Together with professor Dr. Ioana Gheonea, the president of the Romanian Radiology Society, we have embarked on this path from the desire to make a change in how we approach the congress. I am talking here about the traditional congresses, where there is, on one hand, a part encompassing the papers presented, and, on the other, an exhibition area, and that is about it.

What we wanted from this congress was to offer interactive elements, to present scientific inputs not only as case study presentations – these are obviously important – but to raise, if you will, the level of the guests – and this is where professor Gheonea has an extraordinary role concerning the guests of the congress, to be able to present and discuss the new technology and how we can move forward in the area of education. So, we want to change the mindset a bit, and the next editions will certainly be more interactive.