Israeli high-performance MRI developer Aspect Imaging has raised $20 million in its latest round of funding. No details were disclosed about the investors. Founded in 2003, this brings to $120 million the amount that the company has raised to date.
Based in Hevel Modi'in, the company has developed a line of more affordable, compact, and cutting edge MRI machines that make the diagnostic tests more accessible to patients worldwide. With smaller MRIs that can be installed almost anywhere, and operated by almost anyone, more patients will receive MRI scans on a more regular basis, helping them stay more updated on their health. The company has 100 employees, mainly in its Hevel Modi'in location.
Aspect Imaging founder president and CEO Uri Rappoport said, “I love making something that’s supposed to be complicated as easy as possible. Whether it’s an engineer analyzing crude oil and mud or a doctor scanning the brain activity of a newborn infant, a system should be easy to use and easy to read in order to get the answers needed to deliver the best results. Our goal is to make everyone’s lives easier by cutting out unnecessary factors. I want to bring the MRI to the patient and not the patient to the MRI.”
Aspect Imaging has already developed and released a family of eight different products, specializing in the medical, advanced industrial, and preclinical fields. The company’s MRI products are significantly more compact than the typical MRI machine. Due to these smaller, easier to use, and more affordable systems, hospitals and private clinics are able to include them in their facilities, allowing patients to have more access to their tests and results. Importantly, the compact machines don’t compromise the high quality of the images generated by MRI scans
Aspect Imaging also produces MRIs for scientific research. Now MRIs will be more available to researchers around the world looking to drive our understanding of nature and improve our day to day lives.
The company’s innovative medical solutions include the compact Embrace™ Neonatal MRI System and the FDA-approved WristView™ MRI System. Placed inside the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of a hospital, the Embrace System preps and scans pre-born babies in less than an hour without the baby having to leave the NICU. The system has everything needed for providing continuous scanning and monitoring, not needing any special medical equipment. In addition, the machine doesn’t emit any external noise or energy and operates in any stable room temperature environment. The company will unveil more information in the ISMRM conference in Singapore.
The WristView™, FDA cleared MRI system is a dedicated hand and wrist MRI system which cuts out the unnecessary claustrophobic feeling some patients may feel when having a diagnostic test done. The system is safe, requiring no special shielding room or cooling systems while providing results that can be easily accessed by doctors across a broad range of fields in medical facilities which would not normally have the budget or the specialized staff required to operate a full-body MRI scan. Both the WristView™and the Embrace™ Neonatal MRI systems are based on a one-tesla, the most powerful permanent magnet in the field, with bore size and general design that are optimized for the application.
For advanced industrial markets, Aspect Imaging’s FlowScan™ platform provides real-time quantitative results for rheological applications in agricultural, food processing, biofuel and process control verticals. The company has also developing an FT-NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) solution that can analyze opaque materials for online and bench-top measurement and real-time analysis of liquid composition, essential in crude oil, FCC and petrochemical production. Aspect Imaging is also the only company that can install MRI machines in any location and in any environment without any special site preparations, complying with regulations such as FDA, ATEX, NEMA (where required) and where regulations are not required.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 14, 2016
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