Canon notches FDA clearance for tool that reduces MRI scan times

Canon Medical has earned clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a new tech tool that speeds up MRI scan times while improving patient throughput.  

The company said such swiftness will be all-the-more important as imaging centers grapple with sizable backlogs and greater infection control demands. Its new Compressed Speeder tech works by reconstructing full-resolution images from under-sampled data using iterative reconstruction, Canon announced Monday.

“In MR imaging, shortening scan times is vastly important for both the patient and physician,” Jonathan Furuyama, managing director of the firm’s MR Business Unit, said in a June 15 announcement.

The firm said the new offering will allow for “substantial” time between MRI exams to allow for additional cleaning and disinfection. Shorter acquisition, it added, can also potentially keep patients comfortable and further improve image quality by limiting movement.

Marty Stempniak

Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic. 

Around the web

The new F-18 flurpiridaz radiotracer is expected to help drive cardiac PET growth, but it requires waiting between rest and stress scans. Software from MultiFunctional Imaging can help care teams combat that problem.

News of an incident is a stark reminder that healthcare workers and patients aren’t the only ones who need to be aware around MRI suites.

The ACR hopes these changes, including the addition of diagnostic performance feedback, will help reduce the number of patients with incidental nodules lost to follow-up each year.