Dietrich Dirks

Title: Dietrich Dirks: Inventor of a Lithotripsy Workstation

Introduction

Dietrich Dirks is an inventor associated with Norderstedt, Germany, and U.S. Philips Corporation. His work includes a patent for a lithotripsy workstation, a medical system designed to support the imaging and targeting involved in shockwave treatment. The patent record provided lists 1 patent.

Latest Patents

Dirks’s listed patent, “Lithotripsy workstation,” describes a patient-support device and a shockwave source that focuses shockwaves on a fixed point. An X-ray source irradiates that focus from at least two defined positions, while an image detector captures the resulting X-ray images.

The invention uses a marker secured to the X-ray source that can be displayed in the X-ray image. In the specified positions, the marker lies on the line connecting the X-ray source’s focal spot and the treatment focus. This arrangement is intended to reduce the workstation’s cost and weight.

Career Highlights

Dirks’s listed invention addresses the design of equipment for lithotripsy, a treatment that uses focused shockwaves. The patent’s described marker arrangement links X-ray imaging with the location of the shockwave focus.

Collaborations

The supplied information identifies Wilfried G. Pfeiffer and Manfred Elff as Dirks’s coworkers. It does not specify their roles in the patent or the nature of their collaboration.

Conclusion

Dietrich Dirks’s listed patent presents a practical approach to imaging and targeting in a lithotripsy workstation, with a marker design intended to reduce equipment cost and weight.