Since 2006, the world has been battling a scarcity of helium, which regardless of being the second most ample ingredient within the universe, is a uncommon commodity on earth. The solely method to supply helium is to extract it from pure gasoline reserves. While utilized in a wide range of functions — from digital parts to rocket propulsion — helium’s commonest use is as a coolant in giant superconducting magnets powering Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners. The Russia-Ukraine warfare has additional squeezed liquid helium provide with ripple results on diagnostic services world wide, together with India, thus unable to completely utilise their MRI scanners.

However, a brand new class of scanners, developed in Bengaluru, will get round this. This MRI scanner is designed in a method to keep away from reliance on liquid helium, and if in any respect there’s a must quickly cool the scanner’s magnets, the far cheaper and extra ample liquid nitrogen can be utilized to get the job completed. These and different improvements characterise the primary made-in-India MRI scanner developed by the Bangalore-based Voxelgrids Innovations Private Limited that’s set to unveil its first clinically validated product in October on the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Bengaluru.

MRI, whereas the definitive instrument to offer three-dimensional photographs of tissues, and the most effective wager for warning of nascent tumours, continues to be inaccessible to a number of Indians who require it.

The Ministry of Science and Technology estimates that India at the moment has about 4,500 MRI scanners, which is a 3rd of what’s required, given the inhabitants. The shortage additionally means larger prices, with costs starting from ₹5,000 to ₹25,000 for MRI companies, relying on the scanning necessities.

Being customised machines made by a number of multinational firms — GE Healthcare, Siemens, Philips, Hitachi and Toshiba — relying on the magnification they supply, scanners can value anyplace from ₹5 crore and upward. Refurbished machines, arrange in some hospitals, are cheaper at ₹1.5- 3 crore.

While a precise determine wasn’t divulged, Voxelgrids’ MRI scanners, which make use of 1.5T magnets (one Tesla or T is about 30,000 occasions stronger than the earth’s magnetic subject), could be “40% cheaper” than the brand new ones at the moment obtainable out there, Arjun Arunachalam, CEO, Voxelgrids Innovations, informed The Hindu.

The value of scanning will likely be probably reduce by 30%. 

“While there are several innovations involved in it, the key was being in our decision to design the software underlying the scanner from bottom up. Because of this, we were able to make our own customised hardware. We even made our own magnets,” he stated.

The Voxelgrids scanners, gained’t look very totally different from the traditional doughnut-shaped machines into which individuals — shorn of any metallic on their individuals — should lie completely motionless whereas they’re scanned. “However, they can potentially spend less time in our scanner due to our software that enables faster scans,” Dr. Arunachalam stated.

The scanner weighs 2.3 tonnes lighter than the common 2.9-5 tonnes of a typical scanner’s weight. “This allows for it to be mounted on mobile platforms and transported to healthcare settings outside cities,” he added.

The journey to creating one wasn’t straightforward. At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, U.S., Dr. Arunachalam first learnt the intricacies of MRI scanners and even labored in 2008 as an MRI physicist with the General Electric Research, Schenectady, New York — thought of the birthplace of the traditional MRI scanner. Inspired to make his personal, he knocked on a number of doorways for collaborations and funds to construct this machine. It wasn’t till 2016, nevertheless, that he was funded by Tata Trusts.

While this helped him organise a crew, develop the software program, and a prototype, the crew ultimately ran out of funds. In 2019, a ₹12 crore grant from the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), steered by the Department of Biotechnology, helped the corporate transfer to its personal devoted facility.

While Voxelgrids has solely constructed one full-fledged scanner, they’ve commitments to construct 10 extra, aided by a $5 million (roughly ₹40 crore) funding in 2021 by Zoho Corporation.

This 12 months, the corporate additionally has a scientific certification from the Central Drugs and Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO), which is critical to commercially promote their units. “This October, we hope to launch our first clinical site at Whitefield, Bangalore with Zoho Corp,” Dr. Arunachalam stated.

SAMEER, a analysis and improvement outfit of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, had launched a programme to construct an Indian MRI machine in 2015. As late as April 2022, in line with a public doc, it had solely begun issuing a industrial contract to personal sector entities to construct a “commercial scanner”. Though the product was to be prepared in August 2022, there’s nonetheless no report of it having been constructed.