by
Keith Loria, Reporter | January 22, 2010
Ralph Babcock, says that since tubes have gotten so expensive, it's important to encourage competition.
"CT Tubes have gotten more expensive and are required to do so much more, the 64 and greater slice-technology that has become the standard for CT," he says. "Since tubes have become so expensive, it has become necessary to provide delivery and pricing mechanisms that provide easier points of sale to the end-users."
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This year, the company worked with Dunlee in getting their version of the GE VCT Tube to a successful Beta Test and release.
"Imaging Affiliates was the first to install and operate two beta sites with Dunlee's newest CT Tube, the Reevo 240," Babcock says. "Up until now, there had been only one source for this tube and GE could charge a high price or coerce them into a service contract, but now the monopoly is broken."
Kuehn adds that Dunlee now has every tube that GE makes in its product portfolio, which gives hospitals the opportunity to go outside the OEM service agreement and purchase a tube at a discounted price.
Philips Image Intensifiers
(Image courtesy of
Dunlee, Division of
Philips Healthcare)
Having expanded CT tube replacements enables companies such as Imaging Affiliates to offer hospitals and imaging centers more choices in providing replacement tubes that can be provided under low-cost transactional sales or monthly contracts that spread the cost and risk out over a three-year period.
Intensifiers on the Way Out
It's been widely assumed around the industry that flat panel DR image detectors will soon replace image intensifiers, especially in demanding cardiac applications. Despite what's going on with the economy, flat panel technology is experiencing double digit growth year-to-year and the OEMs seem to be moving in this direction.
"The images are perhaps the same quality but the OEMs have all moved in the direction of the flat panels and the customers won't have a choice but to move in that direction," Nash says. "The image intensifier sector is in decline, and I don't see that changing."
Digital flat panels make diagnostic equipment more efficient as digital imaging allows a lower dose, which is a direct clinical benefit to the patient.
