European trade association calls for medical imaging equipment to be replaced

COCIR, a European trade association for the medical imaging, health IT and electromedical industries, has released a poster showing Europe’s medical imaging equipment is in desperate need of being replaced. The poster, which can be viewed online, was first displayed at the European Congress of Radiology.

“A quarter of the European CT installed base cannot be upgraded with the most important dose-saving technology advances, CT Dose Modulation and CT Reiterative reconstruction algorithm technologies,” Nicole Denjoy, COCIR secretary general, said in a prepared statement. “This is equivalent to approximately 2,500 units in Western Europe and 500 in Eastern Europe, which can now be considered inadequate from a radiation safety perspective. They should be replaced as a matter of urgency.”

According to the COCIR’s country-by-country research of Western Europe, 26 percent of Germany’s medical imaging equipment needs replaced. In Italy, the number is 25 percent, and in Spain, it is 14 percent.

Looking at data from Eastern Europe, 40 percent of Poland’s equipment needs replaced, along with 18 percent of Romania’s and 12 percent of Czech Republic’s equipment.