Exhibitors highlight revved-up MR performance, new applications

August 1, 2008 Diagnostic Imaging. Exhibitors highlight revved-up MR performance, new applications Vendors at ISMRM meeting show off new technologies developed to improve workflow, patient comfort and to sell in a saturated market Greg Freiherr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine is geared toward the eggheads of MR: the knob twisters who squeeze as much from their clinical scanners as they can, the experimentalists who push the limits of ultrahigh-field imaging. Vendors reach out to these folks on the ISMRM exhibit floor, pressing their wares by appealing to the technical aspects that draw booth visitors to the annual meeting. At the May meeting, however, vendors made their usual pitches while acknowledging the real world. The big five that dominate MR—GE, Siemens, Philips, Toshiba, and Hitachi—each gave its take on how the industry is developing, putting products into the context of their own R&D. GE Healthcare and Siemens Medical Solutions portrayed their latest 3T scanners as the means for unlocking the potential of this new standard for high-field imaging and broadening its appeal. Hitachi Medical Systems sought to breathe new life into the moribund open MR marketplace with its 1.2T Oasis, which the company has since begun installing at luminary sites in the U.S. Siemens cast its total imaging matrix, or Tim, as the thread that weaves together advanced applications. Toshiba America Medical Systems played off the coil theme with a cardiac coil for its 1.5T scanners but focused attention at its booth on its imaging protocols that eliminate the need for gadolinium-based imaging agents. Philips Medical Systems showcased its leading-edge efforts to develop quantitative MR.

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