Following the recent news that SyntheticMR will make SyMRI NEURO, its leading magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) solution, available for institutions that wish to scan COVID-19 patients prior to discharge;

Dominic Tong, Medical Device Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“The US MRI market, worth $1.6bn in 2019 according to GlobalData, finds itself in an interesting situation. The loss of revenue from elective procedures and re-allocation of healthcare resources towards combating COVID-19 has significantly reduced hospitals’ budgets for MRI machines, weakening the short-term market forecast. However, MRI could become a key part of the COVID-19 diagnostic toolkit, especially with the improvements offered by SyMRI NEURO potentially mitigating some of the negative impact of the pandemic on the market.

“The SyMRI NEURO program allows scans to be conducted faster while providing additional information at a more granular level. These improved scans could help physicians better understand the short- and long-term neurological impact of this disease, more accurately track potential complications and allow patients to be safely discharged earlier.

“In a recent study by the John Hopkins University, Fotuhi and colleagues touched on potential neurological complications in COVID-19 patients, before recommending that COVID-19 patients undergo an MRI scan prior to discharge. In response, SyntheticMR made its SyMRI NEURO software available for healthcare centers looking to perform an MRI scan on COVID-19 patients prior to discharge.”