"One key advancement in cardiology is dynamic flow reserve, which illustrates blood flow and helps physicians assess coronary artery disease more comprehensively than with previous methods," says Brait. "Neurology is another expanding field for PET/CT imaging, as it helps to assess dementia-related disorders as well as motion conditions, such as epilepsy and Parkinson's disease."

As a result of constraints on capital, manufacturers are focusing on reducing scan times and improving image reconstruction capabilities.

"Our customers are asking for workflow and efficiency improvements," says Bender. "In these tough economic times, customers want to use their assets as wisely as possible. They want to be able to do not only advanced techniques in a clinically relevant timeframe, but they also want to be able to potentially handle more patients in a day."

Tighter budgets are also prompting OEMs to change their strategy when it comes to offering new equipment.

"We're certainly seeing downward price pressure because of the economy, uncertainty of health care reform and cuts in reimbursement," says Smith. "Our customers are being asked to do more with less."

At the 2010 SNM Annual Meeting in early June, Philips Healthcare introduced its new GEMINI LXL PET/CT scanner. The system was launched at the European Congress of Radiology in March, but this marked its U.S. debut. The GEMINI LXL scanner is designed to be a high-performance system, but it's significantly cheaper than the company's high-end scanners.

"It's sort of a departure. Our focus in the past has always been on advancing the most premium capabilities of our system," says Smith. "This is kind of a different focus. How can we optimize the price performance calculation for our customers? Not necessarily giving them the most premium imaging capabilities but something that's going to be a very good value for them," he says.

The GEMINI LXL system is "hundreds of thousands of dollars" cheaper than the OEM's high-end units, says Smith.

The future of PET

A forthcoming technology that's sending a buzz through the industry is the development of a PET/MR system. A new unit from Philips Healthcare is currently operating under IDE at several research sites.

"We see this as a molecular imaging research platform for doing more advanced molecular imaging work," says Smith. "The value proposition is bringing together the best soft tissue imaging modality, that being MR, with the best functional imaging modality, that being PET: one system for whole body applications. We have a number of research customers who are investigating what the promising applications are for this platform," he says.

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