Hospital grade X-ray imaging now available for field hospitals and humanitarian missions
Adelaide company Micro-X (ASX: MX1) has won the Land Forces 2021 National Innovation Award for inventing and manufacturing Rover, a lightweight go-anywhere X-ray machine ruggedised and optimised for high intensity use in field hospitals and remote locations.
Military doctors aim to provide combat soldiers who go in harm's way with no less a standard of medical care than they can expect at home. However, conventional, hospital-grade mobile x-ray machines are heavy (typically 400 to 600kg), power hungry and very hard to move around on uneven surfaces.
So, prior to the Rover's development, only small-animal veterinary x-rays units were light enough to be deployed by military forces.
"Defence was looking for ways to bring the standard of deployable imaging up to that of first-tier acute hospitals and in 2016 we were contracted to see if our unique CNT x-ray technology could achieve this. The tests were completely successful and we showed that we could meet all the general radiology needs of a NATO Role 3 deployed medical facility. Product development followed trials at Enoggera Barracks in Queensland and with the US Army at Fort Detrick in Maryland we released Rover in 2020" says Peter Rowland, Micro-X Managing Director.
"Now we are under contract to supply Rover into the ADF's new deployable medical facility as part of JP2060 – Phase 3 and the World Health Organisation has also bought Rovers for use in Pacific nations. We have FDA clearance and now our sights are on selling to other armed forces' deployable hospitals, particularly the US where we will be conducting evaluation trials on bases later this year."
Speaking of the awards, Ian Honnery, CEO of the ADMA Foundation Limited
