In the U.S. alone, annual CT scans now top 90 million — a nearly one-third increase since the mid-2000s. Driving the surge, experts say, is growing demand for emergency, cardiac, and oncology services, along with an aging population.

The trend shows no signs of slowing: a recent Coherent Market Insights report projects the CT market will expand from $9.15 billion in 2025 to $14.03 billion by 2032.

That growth is pushing manufacturers to accelerate innovation, from photon-counting detectors and AI-assisted reconstruction to faster scanners designed to reduce motion artifacts. But expansion also raises practical questions. Who will maintain the growing fleet of scanners amid healthcare technology management (HTM) staffing shortages and rising service costs? And will the rising cost of CT ownership leave smaller facilities behind?

Dan Xu, business leader for CT/AMI at Philips, argues that these pressures are actually fueling adoption. “Health systems are prioritizing CT as a frontline diagnostic tool because they need fast, confident answers, especially in high-volume settings with clinician shortages,” Xu told HCB News.

Executives at GE HealthCare, Siemens Healthineers, and Canon Medical are witnessing similar trends.

CT’s expanding role across care
CT remains central to diagnosing ovarian, pancreatic, kidney, and lung cancers. It’s also a staple in the emergency department, says Matthew Dedman, vice president and head of CT at Siemens Healthineers North America. “CT is mission-critical in hospitals; you can’t operate an ED or provide inpatient care without it,” he adds.

CT is also becoming critical to cardiology, driven in part by 2021 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology (AHA/ACC) guidelines that elevated CT to a level-one test for patients with stable and acute chest pain. Dedman says the shift “opened the floodgates” for cardiac CT services and led many health systems to rethink their CT deployment strategies.

“We’re seeing a move toward advanced, cardiac-capable scanners that can handle rising patient volumes and expand cardiac services across multiple sites,” he adds. Once mostly confined to the hospital, cardiac CT is now moving into outpatient imaging centers and freestanding facilities. That expansion — both in where CT is offered and how it’s used — has become a major driver of demand for high-end scanners, Dedman notes.

Then there’s the other end of the spectrum: the value segment, including 64-slice CT scanners. Dedman attributes much of the growth to U.S. healthcare’s push to move care from hospitals to lower-cost outpatient settings. “Just look at the influx of new outpatient clinics and ambulatory surgery centers,” he says, “where imaging is mostly straightforward rather than highly specialized.”

Convenience is another key driver. Demand is rising in mobile care, with mobile stroke units, ambulances equipped with CT scanners, enabling real-time stroke diagnosis and faster treatment. Dedman says this model is likely to expand as reimbursement evolves, bringing advanced imaging directly to patients who need it most.

Xu sees a similar shift in outpatient and non-hospital settings, where providers are adopting scalable CT solutions to keep pace with growing demand. In these segments, the market favors systems that provide reliable diagnoses, reduce repeat scans, and lower operational burden, areas Xu says Philips is prioritizing.

Take Philips’ Verida and CT 5300 scanners, Xu says. Both are designed to handle higher heart rates in cardiac patients while keeping pace with busy emergency departments. Built-in dose management — automatic current selection, dose modulation, and AI-driven iterative reconstruction — can reduce radiation exposure by up to 80%, while low kilovoltage peak settings and spectral imaging also help lower contrast use.

The Verida, introduced at the 2025 RSNA meeting, pairs third-generation spectral detector technology with AI-enabled spectral image reconstruction, enabling both coronary and functional assessment in a single scan. The system is built for speed, delivering initial images within seconds, performance Xu says supports faster decision-making in time-sensitive cardiology and emergency cases.

Chad Rowland, executive director of premium and photon-counting CT at GE HealthCare, points to solutions like the CardIQ Suite as examples of the company putting customer needs at the forefront of new technologies and helping clinicians get rapid, accurate imaging in critical situations.

CardIQ Suite post-processing software runs on the AW ONE platform, giving clinicians access to more than 50 applications across oncology and cardiology. Rowland calls it a "game-changer," noting that AW ONE integrates into existing workflows and supports flexible deployment and licensing, scaling from single sites to large hospital networks.

Canon Medical is focusing on AI-driven innovation during image acquisition and reconstruction rather than post-processing. Naoki Sugihara, vice president and general manager of the company's CT division, cites the 320-slice Aquilion One/Insight Edition's Clear Motion Cardiac technology, an AI-enabled motion correction that sharpens images in difficult-to-scan patients. Canon is also extending its Precise IQ Engine to multi-slice scanners, a move, Sugihara maintains, that expands access to higher-quality CT imaging across care settings.

The rise of photon-counting CT
Siemens Healthineers launched the first commercial photon-counting CT system in 2021 and has introduced other new photon-counting systems since then. The detectors on these scanners convert individual X-ray photons into electrical signals, providing higher resolution and lower radiation dose than conventional CT. Photon-counting CT has “broken historic barriers in imaging,” says Dedman, enabling advanced clarity in cardiac imaging and detection of subtle oncology lesions.

Philips is also advancing the technology, though Xu emphasizes it remains early-stage. The focus, he says, is on expanding spectral imaging. “Philips has been a leader in detector-based spectral imaging for over a decade,” Xu says. Products like Verida produce high-definition conventional and spectral images within a PACS-ready workflow, he adds.

Xu adds that as photon-counting technology matures, the focus is on delivering practical value: simpler workflows, lower system complexity, manageable service models, and real diagnostic impact. “We see photon-counting as part of a broader strategy to bring high-quality spectral imaging to everyone, not just for niche use cases,” he says.

GE HealthCare's 510(k)-pending Photonova Spectra is a photon-counting system that utilizes proprietary Deep Silicon detector technology to support advanced tissue characterization and disease quantification, Rowland says. “We’re pushing the boundaries of quantitative imaging with innovations like this.”

Service pressures shape CT design
Tackling CT service pressures comes down to design and support, Rowland maintains. He says at GE HealthCare, the focus is on reliability and simplified maintenance to reduce unplanned downtime, while remote diagnostics and predictive analytics resolve many issues without an onsite visit.

“Modular architecture speeds installations and repairs, and digital tools also help empower HTM teams to handle routine tasks confidently,” he adds. “Combined with training and design choices that lower total cost of ownership, these solutions help providers stay efficient and resilient, even with limited resources.”

Siemens Healthineers is also adapting systems for higher uptime, Dedman asserts. Preventive maintenance intervals have been extended from twice a year to once every three years, and smart scanners monitor their own performance, alerting technicians to potential issues before they become critical.

“Uptime requirements are higher than ever,” Dedman says. “Smarter system design and proactive service help healthcare keep CTs running despite staffing challenges.”

Xu points to the Verida scanner, which can deliver full exam images in under 30 seconds and keeps hospitals productive with lean teams. Virtual collaboration and predictive remote services add further support. Simply put, he says, “Service and staffing pressures are reshaping how CT systems must perform.”