News | Press Releases

---

May 28, 2009

HIMA SAN PABLO INSTALLS FIRST Aquilion ONE IN LATIN AMERICA

HIMA San Pablo Brings Premium Healthcare to Puerto Rico with Aquilion ONE Installation

TUSTIN, California — May 28, 2009 — To continue offering the highest quality care available in Puerto Rico and the surrounding areas, Hospital HIMA San Pablo in Caguas, Puerto Rico, has installed Toshiba America Medical Systems’ Aquilion® ONE. As the world’s first dynamic volume CT system, the Aquilion ONE brings the most advanced technology available to the only fully functional stroke program in Puerto Rico, reinforcing HIMA San Pablo Group’s position as a leader in the healthcare industry.

The Aquilion ONE’s ability to image the entire organ and show real-time function helps reduce diagnosis time from hours or days to minutes for patients suffering from life-threatening conditions.

“As a facility that performs more than 40,000 CT scans a year, the Aquilion ONE is a natural fit with our goal of providing the highest quality care available,” said Dr. Ivan Del Toro, chief medical officer, HIMA San Pablo Group. “We started seeing results within the first week the Aquilion ONE was installed. In one case, an 80-year-old female patient was diagnosed in half the time it would have taken without the Aquilion ONE. Reducing diagnosis time for stroke patients is invaluable.”

Introduced in November 2007, dynamic volume CT scans an entire organ in a single pass and produces 4D videos that show an organ’s structure, its movement and blood flow. In comparison, a 64-slice, 128-slice or 256-slice CT scan can only capture a portion of an organ in a single pass, requiring physicians to “stitch together” multiple scans of an organ to get a full image. The new technology helps reduce multiple exposures to radiation and exam time.

“Designed for today’s healthcare environment, the Aquilion ONE reduces overall costs and streamlines treatment by replacing the need for several tests with one comprehensive exam,” said Doug Ryan, senior director, CT Business Unit, Toshiba. “For a high-volume facility like Hospital HIMA San Pablo Caguas, the Aquilion ONE empowers physicians to treat at-risk patients immediately, helping to enhance the quality of care.”

Beyond treating stroke patients, HIMA San Pablo will use the Aquilion ONE for diagnosing at-risk patients served by the hospital’s more than 80 specialties, including the Cardiovascular Institute, HIMA San Pablo Cancer Center, and Pediatric and Adolescence Specialty Center (CEPA). In addition to the Aquilion ONE dynamic volume CT system, HIMA San Pablo uses other Toshiba imaging systems including the Aquilion 64.

About Toshiba’s Aquilion CT Product Line Recognition

The Aquilion® CT product line has received numerous accolades including the number one ranking in CT from MD Buyline since 2002 (six consecutive years). The Aquilion CT line has also been named Best in KLAS in 2006 and 2007; Best in KLAS in 2008 for 64-detector row and above; and Frost & Sullivan’s “Healthcare Innovation Award in Cardiovascular Imaging” in 2008. (For more information about KLAS, visit www.KLASresearch.com.) Most recently, Toshiba’s service for the Aquilion line was ranked number one in 21 out of 34 ServiceTrak Imaging’s 2008 report on CT system service.

About Toshiba’s Aquilion ONE

The Aquilion® ONE, the world’s first dynamic volume CT, utilizes 320 ultra-high resolution detector rows to image an entire organ in a single gantry rotation and shows dynamic function like blood flow. Since its introduction in November 2007, the Aquilion ONE has been named Popular Science magazine’s “Best of What’s New 2008 — Personal Health Category,” rt Image‘s 2008 Most Valuable Product (MVP), Frost & Sullivan’s Global CT Systems Product Differentiation Innovation Award 2007, AuntMinnie.com’s “Minnies 2008 – Best New Radiology Device” and Medical Design Excellence Award Winner in 2009.

About HIMA San Pablo Group

HIMA San Pablo Group is the leading hospital group in Puerto Rico with 1,059 licensed acute care beds in Caguas, Bayamòn, Humacao and Fajardo. As a leader in the healthcare industry, HIMA San Pablo has a strong commitment to providing high quality, ethical care while curing and treating health conditions affecting patients around the world. HIMA San Pablo has more than 1,000 of the best physicians available on staff specializing in all areas of medicine including cardiovascular surgery, orthopedic surgery, neuro and spine surgery and oncology. For more information, visit www.himapr.com.

About Toshiba

With headquarters in Tustin, Calif., Toshiba America Medical Systems markets, sells, distributes and services diagnostic imaging systems, and coordinates clinical diagnostic imaging research for all modalities in the United States. Toshiba Medical Systems Corp., an independent group company of Toshiba Corp., is a global leading provider of diagnostic medical imaging systems and comprehensive medical solutions, such as CT, Cath & EP Labs, X-ray, Ultrasound, MRI and information systems. Toshiba Corp. is a leader in information and communications systems, electronic components, consumer products, and power systems. Toshiba has approximately 198,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of $77 billion. For more information, visit www.medical.toshiba.com.