With the global pandemic at the forefront, the 83rd China International Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF 2020) marked the world’s largest offline exhibition for the medical sector, attracting many leading players to showcase their latest developments in medical technology. There are large numbers of state-of-the-art medical equipment catching eyes of visitors at CMEF 2020 from 19 Oct to 22 Oct, 2020.
At the fair, United Imaging Healthcare showcased a full portfolio of world-leading intelligent products and solutions in diagnosis, treatment, AI and life science instruments. Several new products and solutions were launched, including: uMR Omega, the world’s first 75cm ultra-wide bore 3.0T MR; uCT ATLAS, the ultra-premium 640-slice CT ; uMR 9.4T, the Ultra-High-Field 9.4T Preclinical MR with PET Insert; uBioEXPLORER, the World’s First High Performance Preclinical PET/CT for Large Animal, Intelligent Radiology Department Solution, e-Health solutions, Intelligent Public Health Solution for Prevention and Control; and other customized upgraded solutions for the public health system.
Zhang Qiang, President and CEO of United Imaging said: “After more than a century’s development, the high-end medical equipment sector now embraces an increasing number of innovations. As emerging technologies like AI and 5G continue to mature, they lead us into a new era of intelligence and digitalization. For years, United Imaging has been committed to in-house innovation. Building upon our breakthroughs in core technologies, we have launched a full portfolio of ultra-premium products and solutions to empower clinical, scientific and public health sectors. In the future, we, as a medical conglomerate, will leverage our strength and expertise in intelligent equipment, UIH Cloud, AI, and e-Health to build the industry’s first ‘fully-intelligent healthcare ecosystem’ across all medical stages from prevention, diagnosis and treatment to rehabilitation.”
uMR Omega, The World’s First 75cm Ultra-Wide Bore 3.0T MRI
uMR Omega, the unprecedented ultra-wide bore 3.0T MRI, was a star in United Imaging’s product release conference. As an industry leader in MRI systems, United Imaging has a complete portfolio of core technologies and intellectual property in hardware, including MR superconducting magnet, gradient systems and RF systems. With years of expertise and experience, United Imaging launched the world’s first 75cm ultra-wide bore 3.0T MRI this year in Shanghai. The game-changing—and world’s largest—75cm bore provides 25% more space than traditional equipment, thus ensuring “First Class” level comfort for patients, especially larger patients, pregnant women and people with claustrophobia. Disruptive hardware innovations, including the world’s first 3.5MW gradient amplifier and 97cm ultra-wide bore magnet, enhance the uMR Omega’s high performance gradient spec and magnet homogeneity, both of which are required for high-quality imaging.
The AI-assisted Compressed Sensing (ACS) is developed in-house by United Imaging and can reduce the time of total-body, complete-sequence imaging from dozens of minutes to less than 100 seconds. By drastically reducing the time needed to capture images, it reduces not only the artifacts caused by movement and breathing, but also scanning and waiting time. Recently, 268 scans were performed in just 15 hours on United Imaging’s ACS-equipped High-Performance 3.0T MR at Tongji Medical College of HUST, 4-5 times faster than conventional equipment.
9.4T MRI for Animal Study Empowers International Life Science Research
Spectacularly, two heavy hitters from United Imaging are exhibited in the sector of life science instruments at CMEF. These two products were the China’s First Ultra-High-Field 9.4T Preclinical MR with PET Insert and the World’s First High Performance Preclinical PET/CT for Large Animal uBioEXPLORER
It is believed that the development of medicine relies on the fundamental research on the life science, which requires advanced medical imaging equipment. The uMR 9.4T, China’s first Ultral-High-Field 9.4T preclinical MRI was developed by United Imaging and the Innovation Academy for precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The equipment was designed for empowering the preclinical medicine in the study of life science, biomedicine, and translational medicine, by providing high-quality MR images for small animals, such as mice, rabbits and monkeys. Thanks to performance breakthroughs, including the maximum gradient strength –1000mT/m, the maximum rate of climb — 9000T/m/s, and the four times performance improvement of SNR of low-temperature probes, the uMR 9.4T can assist pathological and pharmacological research on animal models by representing the organizational structure and the functional information of living animals precisely, so as to find solutions for cognitive problem and critical illness in brain.
5G and AI Technologies Advance the Public Health System; e-Health Set for Explosive Growth
How can the industry leverage innovation to enable precise prevention and control of infectious disease outbreaks, and help consolidate and strengthen the public health system? At the fair, United Imaging showcased its technologies in the pandemic fight, such as: the uAI Vision CT which prevents cross infection between staff and patients; mobile-cabin CT making imaging examination possible in challenging conditions; and the industry’s first uAI Discover – Pneumonia for the fast and precise triage, diagnosis and follow-up evaluation of COVID-19. Meanwhile, the company also drew on UIH Cloud, AI and 5G technologies to launch an integrated imaging solution to COVID-19, aiming to help build a smart triage, diagnosis and control system to defend against emergent public health incidents.
A 13m bus with a maximum capacity of 25 tons was quite the highlight on site. The industry’s first heavy-duty tri-axle bus mounted with uAI Vision CT is not only a go-anywhere, stop-anywhere, and operate-anywhere mobile imaging center for all scenarios in extreme circumstances, but also a convenient facility for more routine examinations, such as physical examinations, cancer screening, and cancer patient follow-ups.
With its dual isolation design, this solution can effectively eliminate cross infection between staff and patients. First, the AI system enables contactless scanning through automatic setup and positioning, removing the need for operators to enter the scanning room. Second, the dual-route design allows for separation of staff routes from patient routes. In this way, the “prevention – screening – triage – diagnosis – follow-up” loop remains closed and separate. Earlier in April, United Imaging’s vehicle-mounted CT was deployed at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, to provide 24h scanning for local patients.
During the pandemic, the solutions for the public health system provided by United Imaging was fully and partially implemented in nearly 200 hospitals across the country, including Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital, and supported over 40,000 remote diagnoses. According to Mr. Gao Chuan, Vice President of U+ Healthcare BU, Digital Technology Industry Division, United Imaging: “Emerging technologies like 5G and AI have played a crucial role in fighting the pandemic. I would say, in a certain sense, the pandemic has created excellent opportunities for e-Health. I believe the whole industry is set for explosive growth.”
