“MRI has become the preferred choice for medical diagnosis due to its non-invasive and non-radioactive nature. Compared with other imaging modalities such as CT and Ultrasound, MRI not only provides super physical and structural feature, but also functional chemical information of the human body. However, MRI is still too expensive for widespread clinical applications in developing countries including China and India. With rising trend in cancer and other deadly diseases, there is a dire need for high quality MRI imaging at affordable cost.” says Prof Q.Y. Ma, leading Scientist in the MRI field and Co-Founder of Time Medical Inc. (TiMed).

For magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the higher the magnet field, the better the image quality. High-field MRI system market is dominated by multinational companies and these manufacturers have been trying to improve imaging resolution by increasing the magnetic field strength. The field strength for major clinical MRI systems has progressed from 0.3 Telsa (T) to 1.5T and continued to 3T (the highest field strength allowed for human imaging), with system price around US$0.5M, US$1.5M and US$3M respectively.

One of the key components in a MRI system is the radio frequency (RF) coil which detects the MR signal from the object during the imaging and could be referred as “the lens of a camera”. Currently the market is facing a challenge in that MRI systems fitted with copper RF coils have already reached a limit in resolution and this barrier cannot be overcome by increasing magnetic field strength due to health and safety concerns.

Furthermore, while MRI is recognised as the most sensitive and safer medical imaging tool, it is more expensive compared to CT and ultrasound imaging tools. Statistic shows that China and India have 1 MRI system per 1 million population as compared to 35 MRI systems per 1 million population in US and Japan; there is an estimated 2000 MRI systems in China, four times lower than CT machines, and the reason is believed to be the high cost of MRI system, limiting its applications in healthcare.

Today, a group of Scientists from Columbia University, Harvard Medical School and University of Hong Kong successfully created the world-most sensitive coil for MRI system - High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) coil. This breakthrough technology could greatly improve the imaging quality of medical diagnosis by a significant 300%-500%. It means that the resolution of a low-field 0.3T MRI system is increased to that of a 1.5T system without increasing the magnetic field. This also means that an advanced 3T MRI system could have the equivalent resolution of over 6T, allowing radiologists to see features not observable with the best of today’s MRI systems. More importantly, TiMed’s technologies also drastically reduce the medical imaging cost by as much as 50%, making MRI affordable to more people.

At the RSNA 2007, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, President of National Institute of Health (NIH) Center claimed “Imaging in vivo is the future of medicine!” in his keynote speech. This means one could image human cell at microscopic molecularly level without actually touching the cell! MRI is the most used method for in vivo microscopic imaging and TiMed’s technology could provide the best tool for “Imaging In vivo!” TiMed team demonstrated the ability to achieve a micro image with the highest resolution of 25um at only 2T using the HTS coil tech (see figure one). The team also demonstrated 10-fold improvement in sensitivity for Na (Sodium) imaging which open the door for direct measure of tumor issue.

TiMed’s innovation will have major impact in medical science and technology. The world can now use low-field MRI to get what used to be high-field results and at a significantly lower cost. TiMed’s technologies produce the world best RF coil that empowers radiologists to provide faster, more definitive and affordable diagnosis to benefit patients all over the world.

- End -

TiMed was founded by a group of Scientists trained at Columbia University, Harvard Medical School and the University of Hong Kong. Led by founder Prof. Q.Y. Ma, the R&D team pioneered the use of High-Temperature Superconducting materials in MRI and is the first in the world to develop superconducting RF coil that overcomes the resolution limit of conventional copper coils, and make possible a significant improvement in resolution by 300%-500% without a commensurate increase in magnetic field strength.

The team has generated five patents, published more than 50 papers in the MRI field and owns core IPs licensed from Columbia University. TiMed holds close relationship with world leading medical research centers such as University of California at San Francisco, Harvard BWH, Merck and some local medical centers in China for its HTS coils testing.

As a world leading fully-integrated MRI company, TiMed generates revenue by selling HTS coils and components to MRI manufacturers to retrofit into existing MRI systems as well as through launching its own state-of-the-art MRI systems. TiMed will continue the pursuit in global scientific, technological and clinical excellence to develop the world’s most sensitive and accurate imaging systems for detecting and fighting major illnesses. .