"The pricing of Clarius Mobile Health Corp's wireless handheld ultrasound scanners starts from $4,900, which is fraction of the cost of traditional ultrasound platforms," said Jadhav. "The lower cost, in turn, reduces the cost of ownership for the medical facilities, which is especially important for those that have low patient imaging volumes. This way, mobile medical imaging certainly democratizes medical imaging for the patients."

Other benefits include features like open design used in mobile MR scanners to scan even large, obese patients and decrease the risk of claustrophobia and panic attacks due to the closed design of the imaging devices.


They also hold the potential for a number of new applications, one of which is single-exposure, dual-energy subtraction X-ray imaging. The technique makes X-ray scanners more sensitive to traditional counterparts. Another is photon-counting CT, which enhances the spatial resolution and contrast of images while exposing patients to less radiation.

Mobile stroke units are also becoming popular, with a recent study showing that their use resulted in better outcomes and less chance of disability among ischemic stroke patients in 90 days compared to emergency medical service ambulances.

Mortality for these patients was 9%, compared to 12% for EMS patients; and out of 100 MSU patients, 27 had less final disability and 11 more were disability-free, according to the study.

AI, as well, is expected to play a bigger role in this technology. All these new features have the potential to enhance scanning by recognizing different structures in the human torso, eliminating motion artifacts and creating better spatial resolution and contrast. "The incorporation of these technologies and miniaturization of components in the mobile medical imaging systems will significantly increase their diagnostic sensitivity and result in more compact design, in turn providing robust growth for the market," said Jadhav.

He adds that mobile medical imaging devices are expected to be utilized by more diverse providers in the future. "These platforms are expected to witness strong adoption and become ubiquitous diagnostic tools used by different providers in emergency rooms, physician offices, urgent care centers, rehabilitation clinics and road and air ambulances in the near future. These systems are expected to expedite the acceptance of home radiology by offering an accurate diagnostic tool for performing medical imaging at the patient's home."

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