[This article appeared in the February 2008 edition of DOTmed Business News]

Buyers of new and pre-owned medical imaging instrumentation find it difficult to stay current with all of the changes in imaging technology.

Change occurs so rapidly that imaging devices that were considered leading edge just three years ago are now deemed obsolete by the market.
So what's different in the last few years in X-ray technology advancement and device introduction that has led to what I call, Technology Useful Life Compression.

Consider market conditions as if you were being imaged with a 64-slice CT. In one 10-second breath hold we could: image your whole body, achieve sub-mm resolution, collect data with 1 mm slices, produce 700-1000 images and image the heart in 1-beat

All of this is possible for about $1.5 million.

This is quite the change from three years ago when the market was just beginning to see multi slice CT. And, there's now much more to digital X-ray than just CT.

But in order to understand where the market is headed, some history, technology, insight into the forces driving the buyer, seller and original equipment manufacturer (OEM), the markets and applications is required.

In short, the question that looms: how do DOTmed readers capitalize on the opportunities associated with the migration to digital X-ray from analog.

The Digital Advantage

Ask buyers and sellers about the advantage of transitioning from analog to digital radiography and improved imaging, faster throughput and elimination of film are always the "correct" answers.

Oddly though, with all of the institutions around the world using analog X-ray devices you'd think they'd all be transitioning to digital. But it's been a gradual progression, one very much driven by cost and performance.

Eliminating film was the biggest catalyst, the trend dating back to the late 1970's when two Texas speculators, the Hunt brothers, accumulated a major position in the silver market and then conspired to artificially raise its price. Like so many things there was a down stream effect as silver is a component in film.

Spurred by rising prices, end users began to look for ways to eliminate film and go digital. Thus the move to convert to digital X-ray imaging was on and there was no stopping it.

And with good reason since the first real benefit in going digital is the elimination of film. Others include: elimination of film storage rooms, increased productivity/throughput and improved imaging, though this is application dependent since clinical images are not necessarily better just because they're digital.

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