Imagine how fragile a baby in Humber’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is. Whether they were born too early or are receiving treatment for health complications, NICU babies need soothing, safe environments to heal and grow.

The Optima’s x-ray plate slides right into the baby’s incubator, so NICU babies can have x-rays taken without having to be moved.

Humber River Hospital’s new mobile x-ray detector in combination with the GE Optima, can be brought right into NICU rooms so babies can have x-rays taken without having to be moved.

Previously, if our staff needed medical images to assess and treat our babies, they needed to be carefully transported to our second floor Medical Imaging department for x-rays or moved from the incubator onto a very large heavy detector.

“When we learned about the new detector for the Optima we thought ‘We need to get that for the NICU babies’,” says Medical Imaging Manager Dolores Dimitropoulos. “The babies can stay in their own beds with one of the wonderful NICU nurses helping to position them.”

The Optima and detector, which was purchased thanks to donor support, can be easily positioned by our techs, is nimble enough to get into hard to reach places like a NICU room, and has a smaller x-ray detector plate which can slide right into the Giraffe Omnibed Incubator, allowing our x-ray technologists to take images faster than before.

The Optima detector also takes some of the sharpest images on the market today.

“The images have a greatly improved diagnostic quality for our radiologists and physicians,” says Dolores. “It is giving us an even better opportunity for more accurate diagnoses, while reducing the physical stress for the baby during the exam.”