Here is what you can expect in the first quarter of 2022:

iQ-SYSTEM PACS

• Windows 11 and Server 2022 will be supported by iQ-SYSTEM PACS (including its components iQ-WEB 6.7.3, iQ-ROUTER 4.0, iQ-VIEW 3.1 and iQ-4VIEW 2.2).
• The iQ-SYSTEM PACS product registration process in Switzerland has started, since only locally registered medical devices may be delivered to Switzerland from April 1, 2022
• iQ-WEB and iQ-4VIEW
  • All iQ-WEB users will benefit from comprehensive statistical analysis, as CSV export to Excel will be available for EasyWEB data. This is important e.g. for the billing of teleradiology companies, organizational statistics reports, PACS quality management, radiology KPI and more.
  • Expect an even higher performance of iQ-4VIEW especially for large studies with many images. Loading multi-frame studies will get around three times faster.
  • Important iQ-WEB cyber security fixes
• iQ-ROUTER 4.0.x – Be curious about the new forward job management in iQ-ROUTER 4.0.x. This is allowing continuous transmission retries even in case of long downtimes

iQ-DOSE 1.1

The upcoming version release of our dose management solution will support radio-fluoroscopy studies and GDT data transfer. The latter is an interesting feature for German healthcare institutions, as it facilitates the integration of iQ-DOSE into an existing German radiology workflow. The GDT interface is used for system-independent data transmission between medical measuring devices or external applications and the practice software.

iQ-LITE 3.2

Starting from version 3.2, the DICOM viewer iQ-LITE will be released as a non-medical device for use with robot systems. We will also integrate this new version directly into the iQ-ROBOT 4.1 setup. During the automatic creation of portable patient media iQ-LITE 3.2 is placed onto CDs, DVDs or BDs, where it allows healthcare professionals to view their patients’ studies for clinical reference and patients to access their own images.

Of course, there are more releases to come this year. Just to give you a sneak peek: there will be Macintosh-based imaging workstations, a solution for managing medical consents digitally as well as the expected NMPA certification for access to the Chinese market.

Regarding the upcoming product discontinuations, we would like to inform you as follows:

Windows 8.1

On January 10, 2023, Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 8.1 as this product has reached its end of life. This means that no more security patches will be made to this operating system which may open the door to potential cyber security risks for those who keep on using Windows 8.1 beyond that deadline.

Of course, as a medical device manufacturer, we must ensure that our software products only run on supported operating systems for safety reasons.

As a consequence, IMAGE will stop activating any software licenses (both new installations and replacement/migration licenses) on Windows 8.1 starting October 10, 2022. At the same time, we will stop providing technical support for iQ software that is installed on the above-mentioned operating system. This applies to both diagnostic and non-diagnostic use.

In case you or your customers are still using Windows 8.1 to run any medical software, we strongly recommend to take action now and upgrade to current operating systems and our latest software versions in order to avoid putting your medical networks at risk of hacking attacks and malicious software.

Make sure to inform your customers accordingly and to assist them in the transition in order to avoid any inconveniences by September 2022.

iQ-X

In July 2021, we informed you that Microsoft has announced the end of life of the Internet Explorer 11. The desktop application will go out of support and be retired on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10 (Windows 10 versions 20H2 and later; Windows 10 IoT versions 20H2 and later). For Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 ESU users, Windows end of support will occur on January 10, 2023.

Since our iQ-X viewer runs on IE, it is our obligation as a medical device manufacturer to inform you, that we will no longer support iQ-X (for USA, Canada, Australia and Oceania, Europe and North Asia) from June 15, 2022 for Windows 10 and from January 10, 2023 for Windows 8.1.