by
Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor | August 22, 2011
The Biograph mMR
(Credit: Siemens)
A German clinic is the first private radiology office to order Siemens Healthcare's hybrid PET-MR device, the Biograph mMR, for the routine scanning of patients, the Erlangen, Germany-based company said Monday.
Doctors with the practice, called MRI, Nuclear Medicine and PET/CT Center Bremen Central, said they wanted the new device to speed up scans and to potentially reduce radiation exposure to patients, in comparison with PET-CT exams.
The Bremen clinic is also getting a new Magnetom 3-T MRI from Siemens installed at the same time, the companies said. The group practice already owns another Siemens 3-T MRI, and two 1.5-T MRIs.
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Previous installations of the PET-MR machine have been mostly at teaching hospitals, such as Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
The Biograph mMR, considered the first new modality in a decade, was
cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for sale in the U.S. in June. It received Canada's OK
earlier this month.
Dr Michael Friebe
Amazing considering that the clinical R&D just started!
August 23, 2011 02:49
Amazing! Considering the cost of the system, and the potential public and private reimbursement that cannot be higher than for a PET/CT, this purchase undoubtedly has a marketing component to it. Nothing wrong with that, but simply amazing. The scientific community believes - but is not sure yet - that the PET/MR will show clinical advantages for certain (!! not all !!) pathologies compared to PET/CT and open additional diagnostic possibilities for other clinical questions. While I am a great supporter of this technique I believe that we are still some years away from calling it a "commercial" product with cleary proven clinical and economic benefits. And there are still some technical issues to be solved / improved like the attenuation correction of the PET image. Lets see what the RSNA 2011 will bring!
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Mike Pringle
Re: Amazing considering that the clinical R&D just started!
August 25, 2011 02:39
I totally agree with Michael's comments. Exciting technology but certainly not routine.
Mike Pringle
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