The “PLATFORM” industries encompass a wide range of products and services covering the complete care cycle.
MEDICAL IMAGING EQUIPMENT
Medical imaging is the discipline in charge of generating internal images of the body. The main objective of these images is to allow medical doctors to identify abnormalities in order to prevent, diagnose or follow up diseases or conditions present in the patient. Medical imaging equipment requires significant capital investment in hardware and software technologies to produce the images.
COCIR comprises more than 90% of the global industry players in medical imaging technology, which bring to market the different main product modalities, namely:
• X-ray
• Computed Tomography (CT) scanners
• Nuclear Medicine
• Ultrasound (US)
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI)
RADIATION THERAPY (RT)
Radiation Therapy (RT) has evolved to be one of the essential therapies for cancer treatment. It uses photons from X-rays to impact the tumors and destroy its genetic material avoiding its further growth. There are different ways to use RT for cancer treatment:
• Cure – In cases where the tumor is easily located and no metastasis has taken place, the use of RT can reduce the tumor and eliminate it from the body.
• Complement to surgery – After a tumor removal surgery is performed, the area is irradiated in in order to remove remaining malign tissue and lower the probability of recurrence.
• Support therapy for chemotherapy – RT is used to reduce the size of the tumor.
• Palliative care – For several types of tumors that cannot be removed or eliminated, RT is used to reduce their size reliving the patient from the symptoms.
Currently 50% of the cancer patients population reside in low and middle income countries, were only 30% of the RT unites are located. With this fact in mind increasing access to RT units in those countries is the actual challenge for the RT market. For more technical information about RT follow the Radiation Therapy tab in the web page.