The difference between an MRI and an iPhone
It’s a common mistake of customers to believe that an MRI is like a computer or iPhone. So, in the world that we have with high-tech electronics, your iPhone gets old and it can’t keep up with the new software that’s been designed, it can’t keep up with the new pieces that are coming to market. Well, the world of diagnostic imaging electronics is different. There aren’t a whole lot of new pieces of software being put on your MRI. The newest piece of equipment will have newer software, that’s a different story. But your 10-year-old piece of equipment doesn’t get a whole lot of new software. So, what you can do is re-tune this system, tune it back to like it was brand new, and it will be as good as the day you bought it. This is something most customers don’t understand about their MRI. They think it just got old, it’s outdated, and it just is running slower now because computers tend to start running slower. Computers don’t run slower, it doesn’t make slower images. It’s get out of CAL and may give you worse images. So we calibrate it back into spec, fine-tune it and it will give you the same images it did when it was brand new.
How should you look at upgrades?
It’s a common misnomer in the field for people to think that because their equipment’s older they need to replace it, because we’ve been sold that in every other high-tech electronic company. If you need new capabilities or new technology, the only way to get that is through upgrading your equipment and going to a newer platform. This is another place where SWMR can provide real value. For example, whole-body imaging is something you would like, but you’re going to do it two or three times a month. Do you really need whole-body imaging all the time? Lets say its a $200,000 increase from a 12x scanner to a 16x scanner. Do you really need that platform change? And if you really want whole-body imaging that’s done in a single scan, which you might be doing in every single patient, then you’ll need a 750 platform or a 450 platform, which is a wide-bore that has the ability to do it in one continuous scan. Now that’s another $250,000 jump from that original jump. Which value do you need and what’s the most practical way to do it? This is the value SWMR can bring to the market better then anyone else.