On Friday, hospital staff members unveiled an advancement in their cardiovascular diagnosis and treatment options: a cardiac catheterization laboratory and CT scan system with three-dimensional imagery.

The $3.5 million equipment upgrade allows officials at The Med to plug information from a CT scan directly into a cath lab procedure, reducing the time spent diagnosing patients.

In describing the way the system works, Philips Healthcare CT specialist Brian Rogers compared it to a journalist gathering information.

"The CT is like a source who is an expert on a subject, and the journalist is like the cath lab, receiving as much information as possible without initially knowing much about the subject," Rogers said. "So the cath lab brings up the CT scan information, and then the doctor knows exactly what they are dealing with, as if that source sent the journalist detailed notes on a subject they are assigned to write on."

The sudden increase in information allows the doctor, when doing a cath lab procedure, to quickly find the problem, whereas the previous process would require taking as many as 100 photographs while exposing the patient to radiation.

Cath lab director Karen Rhodes, a registered nurse, evaluated the system at the University of Colorado Medical Center.

"We researched in detail and found the best technology that is out there, and that's why we purchased this system," Rhodes said. "The hospital gave us the money we needed to get the best technology that is out there. So when you are able to offer up the best technology that is available and money is not an issue, it becomes something to celebrate in the community."

Rhodes said the added technology would lead to an increase in the discovery of cardiovascular disorders for Bryan-College Station residents.

There are about 350 similar systems across the country, Rogers said. But the ability to transfer the data from the CT scan to the cath lab in "real time" is limited to a few hospitals.

St. Joseph Regional Health Center spokesman Tim Ottinger said that the Bryan hospital has had flat-plane technology in its cardiac cath labs for more than three years and that the hospital remained the only certified Chest Pain Center in the region. It does not, however, have a three-dimensional station.

The equipment at both hospitals is among the lowest in the industry in radiation emissions, officials said.

College Station Medical Center cardiologist Van Miller, who has been using the system since it was put in place about a month ago, said customization allows him to cater to the specific needs of the patient during diagnosis and treatment.

"If I'm looking at the anatomy, I can determine lesion length or its size," Miller said. "It's going to tell me the specifics for the size of something, like a pacemaker I need to put in the patient. Rather than having to spend all of the time needed to take more pictures in the cath lab, I can now customize everything based on what the patient needs at that very time. It's a truly remarkable technology."

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