In recent years, Medical Imaging has come a long way on the road of development. Recent medical imaging technologies create MRIs, X-rays, CT scans, and Ultrasounds using powerful modern tools that give detailed anatomical images. One of technologies that is gaining popularity is the mobile and portable medical imaging technology. This is because of the social distancing measures where patients are reluctant to go to hospitals but at the same time do not want to halt their healthcare. This enables the healthcare practitioners to effectively provide care by bringing the equipment to the patient rather than the patient to the equipment. Portable MRIs may be successfully used in intensive care environments. In other scenarios, including the emergency room, mobile stroke units, and resource-limited environments, this method can hold promise for portable evaluation of neurological injury.
The world is shifting toward more Portable medical imaging. The use of ultrasound technology, for example, has increased rapidly in the last few years, with more companies providing portable solutions and encouraging the use of point-of-care ultrasounds (‘POCUS’).One downside is that it sometimes takes longer to obtain MRI scans than CT scans, and can not be performed in a compact way, such as portable X-rays. For physicians to obtain more advanced clinical attentiveness and expertise in these fields, even formalised fellowship training programmes are now available. This is also all in the sense of artificial intelligence technology, which in the field of radiology is increasingly gaining momentum.
A simple portable low-field device that operates on a standard electrical plug changes the paradigm by bringing the hospital environment to the bedside of the patient and it can be done safely due to lower magnetic field strength. Where feasible, shifting away from concentrated hospital care to smaller specialty centres and even to the home not only decreases patient discomfort and infection risk, like Covid-19, it also frees up precious resources in hospitals and saves money. Healthcare ‘s future is not only in hospitals, it is evolving into the community.
