Siemens Healthcare is developing a solar power solution, which would support the medical imaging equipments including MRI, CT, ultrasound scanning and X-ray systems. The company said this would largely help the centres located at the rural parts of the country, where power shortage is high.

The company has developed the solar power solution at its R&D centre in Goa. to connect with various imaging systems, including MRI, CT, ultrasound scanning and X-ray systems.

“We are conducting clinical trials at Bhiwandi, near Mumbai and is expected to launch the product in next three months,” said D Raghavan, executive vice-president and head - health imaging and therapy, Asia Pacific Region, Siemens Healthcare.

“The most difficult part in our research was to connect solar power solutions with X-Ray machines and we have completed that. The clinical trials would take two months to complete,” he said at the sidelines of the launch of Seimens 1.5 Tesla MRI scanner.

The medical imaging service providers has to put an additional cost of Rs 5-7 lakh to install the solar power solution in their facility.

The company expects the market for the solution to be more in the rural market, where power supply is insufficient to run imaging systems. It could also be used with equipments from other manufacturers, except the X-Ray machine.

The total imaging market in India is around $ 400 to 500 million with 14 to 20 per cent growth. Siemens Healthcare currently has 35 per cent of the total imaging marketshare in the country. The company, which has closed at Rs 1000 crore revenue last year is expected to grow in tandem with the market growth in the country, he said.

business-standard.com