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The conventional medical imaging systems in use today -- self-contained units combining data acquisition hardware with software processing hardware and imaging display -- are expensive devices demanding sensitive handling and maintenance and extensive user training. Only those treatment centers with the required financial and manpower resources are usually able to acquire and utilize them. Even when such equipment does exist in developing countries, it is often not in use because it is too sophisticated or in disrepair or because the health personnel are not trained to use it, said Rubinsky..

"Imaging is considered one of the most important achievements in modern medicine. Diagnosis and treatment of an estimated 20 percent of diseases would benefit from medical imaging, yet this advancement has been out of reach for millions of people in the world because the equipment is too costly to maintain. Our system would make imaging technology inexpensive and accessible for these underserved populations," said Rubinsky.

Under the new technology developed by Rubinsky, an independent data acquisition device (DAD) at a remote patient site that is simple with limited controls and no image display capability would be connected via cellular phone technology with an advanced image reconstruction and hardware control multiserver unit at a central site (which can be anywhere in the world).

The cellular phone technology transmits unprocessed, raw data from the patient site DAD to the cutting- edge central facility that has the sophisticated software and hardware required for image reconstruction. This data is then returned from the central facility to the cellular phone at the DAD site in the form of an image and displayed on its screen. "The DAD can be made with off-the-shelf parts that somebody with basic technical training can operate, Rubinsky noted.
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