January 13, 2017 — Hitachi Aloka Medical America Inc. announced in November that the Sofia 3-D Breast Ultrasound system received an Innovative Technology designation from Vizient Inc., the largest member-driven healthcare performance improvement company in the country. The designation was based on reviews of Sofia by hospital experts who attended Vizient’s Innovative Technology Exchange in September 2016. The event provided medical technology suppliers the opportunity to demonstrate their product and gain direct feedback from 1,300 onsite clinical experts and healthcare providers on the impact their products may have on improving clinical care and safety, or benefits to an organization’s care and business model.
Designed for women whose breast density may result in an inconclusive mammogram, Sofia uses ultrasound to create a 3-D volume of the whole breast. Patients are imaged in the prone position, placing their breast onto Sofia’s radial scanning array. With the breast compressed simply by laying prone, the patient rests comfortably during the system’s rapid automated 30-second scan. The acquired high-resolution ultrasound images are then sent to the Sofia workstation and reconstructed into a 3-D volume of the entire breast that can be quickly interpreted by the radiologist.
“Due to the number of products and services being released and marketed as ‘innovative’, member hospitals truly value the peer-review system in place at Vizient to help them identify products worth further evaluation at their own facilities,” said Debbie Archer, director of procurement and leader of Vizient’s Innovative Technology program for suppliers. “After a review of Sofia 3-D Breast Ultrasound system, Vizient’s members agreed this solution offers unique and incremental benefit over other products available on the market today, and recommended it for an Innovative Technology designation.”
For more information: www.hitachi-aloka.com
February 02, 2026 
