2023-07-07 15:47:27
A Swiss start-up has developed a miniature MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) intended to go directly to the patient’s bedside. The innovation created in partnership with scientists from Marseille was presented last month on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly in Geneva.
MRIs have become indispensable medical instruments in hospitals. Their number has exploded in Switzerland in recent years. But the cost of these machines weighs on the balance.
Thursday at 7:30 p.m., David Bendahan, research director at the CNRS in Marseille, said that mobility was the sinews of war in medical technologies: to intensive care, to sports fields, in a mobile medical office and even mobility in an ambulance.
This mobility might potentially save many lives around the world, especially in the event of a stroke. And this is precisely what interests Paolo Machi, head of the Interventional Neuroradiology Unit at HUG.
“If we had a diagnosis made in the ambulance, we might immediately bring the patient to the interventional neuroradiology room to go physically look for the clot”, he specifies.
Better quality images
This mini-MRI works exactly like its big sisters in hospitals. Its power, on the other hand, is regarding ten times lower.
To be able to interpret the images obtained, Multiwave Technologies uses the very latest innovations, as its co-founder Tryfon Antonakakis explains: “The magnetic field is much weaker. By using the same reconstruction algorithms, the defects that would emerge from the image would be quite large and we mightn’t use it.”
And to estimate that, “thanks to our technology, composed of AI and algorithms that we have developed, the images obtained can be used for a diagnosis”.
Soon in our hospitals?
The MRI is sold for 200,000 francs and three devices are currently being tested in Europe.
The founders hope to soon obtain their approval for an official launch on the market, details Panos Antonakakis, the other co-founder of the start-up. “When we are FDA (US Food & Drug Administration) and CE approved, we will be able to offer a subscription system that will reduce the acquisition time for the customer, give clinics the choice of using it on certain days of the week only or of the seasons, for example for ski resorts or islands.”
Subject TV: Julien von Roten
Web adaptation: Julie Marty and Carlotta Maccarini
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