by
Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | June 06, 2022
From the June 2022 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Manufacturers in the PET and SPECT space are focusing on decreasing scan times, improving image quality to see smaller irregularities and lowering radiation dose.
In nuclear medicine, product development has also focused on researching new radiotracers. There are also several preclinical devices in the research stages.
Here’s a look at what's new and what's to come in the future.
Cubresa
Cubresa's BrainPET, the world’s first commercial PET insert system, is designed for use in a 3T MR scanner and provides simultaneous PET/MR imaging capacity. The company recently announced that two prominent brain research centers — Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, and Lawson Health Research Institute in Ontario, Canada — have joined the company’s Foundational Client Program. This program is designed to engage global leaders at brain research institutions who are seeking to enhance their research activities with the addition of a BrainPET system.
“The BrainPET is designed for brain research centers that are conducting leading-edge research and are looking to add simultaneous PET/MR capability to their imaging suite,” said Lisa Bako, vice president of sales and strategic partnerships for Cubresa. “We are speaking with numerous institutions in North America, the U.K. and beyond who are very interested in acquiring this novel system.”
The BrainPET is currently under development with the aim of providing a higher PET spatial resolution and sensitivity than commercially-available whole-body hybrid systems. Potential future clinical applications include Alzheimer's dementia screening and diagnosis, brain tumor assessment and management, epilepsy assessment and treatment and the study of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
DOSIsoft
DOSIsoft has been marketing its PLANET Onco Dose software for molecular imaging and molecular radiotherapy to provide patient-specific dosimetry, personalization of treatment and disease follow-up.
The company has approval to use the software for SIRT/Yttrium-90 in the U.S., and is adding Lutetium-177 and Iodine-131 support in both the U.S. and Europe.
The software is unique in that it’s multi-radionuclides and vendor-neutral, said Sébastien Vauclin, product manager at DOSIsoft.
“We wanted to have a complete solution that is independent of imaging manufacturers,” Vauclin said.
GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare recently introduced a new feature for neurological imaging for its SIGNA PET MR system. Called MotionFree Brain, it removes any patient motion using raw images.
