The installed base of medical imaging equipment in Europe is aging and needs to be replaced, according to the European Coordination Committee of the Radiological, Electromedical, and Healthcare IT Industry (COCIR), in a poster presentation at last week's ECR 2016 in Vienna.
Seeking to raise awareness of the prolonged delay in new medical imaging technologies reaching healthcare professionals and patients, the poster at the ECR's second EuroSafe Imaging session emphasizes that it's essential and long overdue to replace Europe's medical imaging equipment, according to COCIR.
In a statement, COCIR Secretary General Nicole Denjoy said that a quarter of the CT installed base -- approximately 2,500 units in Western Europe and 500 in Eastern Europe -- can't be upgraded with important dose-saving technology such as CT dose modulation and iterative reconstruction algorithm technologies. Those systems can now be considered inadequate in terms of radiation safety and should be replaced as a matter of urgency, she said.
While COCIR members are continuously improving medical new imaging technologies, healthcare providers must play their role in advancing safety, according to Denjoy.
"They need to adopt a more patient-centric approach to dose reduction and dose optimization when replacing aging and outdated equipment," she said.
