Tokyo (SCCIJ) – Swiss start-up Multiwave Technologies has launched an affordable and ultra-portable MRI scanner, despite a magnetic field that is about ten times weaker than that of a conventional scanner. Artificial intelligence does the trick.
MRI scans are often vital for a live-saving diagnosis, but are often expensive and only available in larger hospitals (© Dmitriy Gutarev / Pixabay).
Image quality
“Our goal is to make MRI available to everyone. Today, two-thirds of the world doesn’t have access to medical imaging, and 90% of the world doesn’t have access to an MRI. This is because MRI is not affordable,” say Tryfon and Panos Antonakakis, who founded Multiwave Technologies in 2015. “We want to change that, both in developed and developing countries.”
A standard MRI scanner uses a large, powerful superconducting electromagnet to generate radio waves that can precisely locate protons in the human body. Researchers have been trying to build scanners that use much smaller permanent magnets – but reducing the number of magnets results in lower image quality. However, Swiss start-up Multiwave Technologies has solved this problem.
“With our self-developed artificial intelligence and algorithms, the images obtained by this MRI scanner can be used for diagnosis,” says Tryfon Antonakakis, co-founder of Multiwave Technologies. Even better, the price of the new device is only about 200,000 Swiss francs, making it significantly cheaper than a conventional MRI machine.
First test devices in use
In the summer of 2022, Multiwave delivered its first ultra-portable MRI systems to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York (USA) and Brighton and Sussex Medical School (UK). By the end of this year, the company plans to deliver another ten units to leading research institutions in Europe and the U.S. and expects to receive FDA clearance, followed by CE marking.
Once this ultra-portable MRI scanner is approved, Multiwave intends to offer a subscription model that will reduce the acquisition time for the customer and make it much more accessible, as recently stated. Offering the device through such a model will give clinics the choice to use the scanner only on certain days of the week or for seasonal use, such as in a ski resort or on an island.
The young research company is headquartered in Switzerland’s leading innovation hub and incubator, Fongit, in Geneva, and has a research arm in Marseille, France. Multiwave is working closely with European partners such as the European Commission, the University of Aix-Marseille, and Imperial College London to advance MRI technology.
Text: SCCIJ based on an article of Swiss.tech
