Signify Premium Insight: Shopping, Cinema, X-ray – Imaging at the Mall

Recent years have seen the release of multiple devices which promise to liberate some modalities from the radiology departments that traditionally housed them. The promotional material shows them being used in developing countries and promises for them to transform healthcare across the world. Butterfly Network, for example, boasts of the impact of the Butterfly iQ, its handheld ultrasound scanner, in rural Uganda, and claims its “innovative telehealth model” is bringing affordable healthcare to Kenya. Nanox, meanwhile, another at the vanguard of the trend, hopes its Arc scanner will be able to bring about the screening of every symptomatic patient across the world at least once a year.

Noble though these aspirations are, the more significant impact, at least in the nearer term, will be felt in developed markets. Here, in most cases, these and other companies will not grant access to medical imaging, but they will help to increase its accessibility. Taking medical imaging out of hospitals and into more convenient commercial settings such as big-box retailers, shopping centres and large pharmacies.