This article is from in the April 2007 issue of DOTmed Business News. A list of registered users that provide sales & service can be found at the end.

Computed Tomography (CT) technology is everywhere in healthcare today. This versatile and accurate imaging modality is used in a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. But it wasn't until about ten years ago - 30 years after the CT was first developed - that advances in CT technology really took off and made CT the king of the hill it is today.

In fact, CT advances moved so slowly in the early years that many pundits thought that MRI technology would blow past it and make CT imaging obsolete - so much so that GE temporarily stopped investing in new CT technology in the early 1990s. But that was the time other companies like Picker and Elscint began introducing the first multi-slice CTs. In 1998, the first 4 slice CTs became widely used, and everything accelerated from there.
Today, super-fast, high-resolution 64 slice CTs are the gold standard; however, because of the high cost, this cutting-edge technology has been installed in only a handful of hospitals so far. But that hasn't slowed down development of even faster machines by the OEMs, some of which have leap-frogged the logical next step, 128 slice -- Toshiba in particular.

Today, in fact, 256 slice CT prototypes are undergoing clinical tests in the U.S. and Japan.

These newer, faster machines, which deliver high resolution and more dimensionality, are giving radiologists a better view inside the body, resulting in the detection of diseases such as lung cancer at earlier and earlier stages, when treatment is most effective. As a quick comparison, a 40-slice scanner covers 20 to 32 millimeters in a single pass, and a 64-slice device can cover about 40 millimeters in a single pass, which takes about a half a second. At that rate, a 64-slice scanner can gather a high-resolution image of a heart, brain or a pair of lungs in about five seconds. One of the fastest growing applications is cardiac CT, which many believe will soon make invasive diagnostic angio catherization obsolete.

Keeping these machines up and running in top condition is big business - downtime is expensive for both hospitals and imaging centers. It also creates a potentially dangerous situation for patients if a CT scan is delayed for any length of time, particularly in the emergency room.

Which Way to Go for Service, with the OEM or an ISO?

The OEMs all service what they sell, and when it comes to the latest systems, such as the 64 CTs, OEM service is pretty much mandatory. But for the vast majority of CTs in use, independent service organizations, or ISOs, are a viable option for service and maintenance. And some ISOs claim they are as good as or better than the manufacturers' engineers.

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