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Rover ready for Australian Hospitals

ARTG listing for revolutionary lightweight x-ray machine

  • Globally unique new x-ray technology invented and made in Adelaide
  • Rover is a mobile digital x-ray imaging unit that’s lighter, cheaper, more robust, and more reliable than the competition
  • Micro-X has miniaturized X-ray tubes using carbon nanotube emitter technology that are one tenth of the weight of conventional glass tubes
  • Over 250 units operating in 30 countries around the world, first batch of Rover orders for Australia to be shipped.
Micro-X Rover is a mobile digital x-ray imaging unit that’s lighter, cheaper, more robust, and more reliable than the competition
Credit: Micro-X

An ultra-lightweight, highly mobile medical imaging device, the Micro-X Rover, that delivers easier and simpler x-ray imaging for patients and faster workflow for radiographers, has been given the green light by health authorities for sale in Australia.

The inclusion of Rover on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) means better imaging solutions for Australians and opens a path to new manufacturing jobs in Adelaide.

“It’s fantastic now that we can really attack our own domestic market here in Australia with our own, highly price competitive, Australian made, proprietary product,” said Peter Rowland, managing director of Adelaide-based firm Micro-X, which invented the technology and developed this game-changing product.

The Micro-X Rover was first designed for the Australian military as an ultra-mobile radiology solution for deployed military hospitals, delivering the full spectrum of imaging solutions in support of combat operations or humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

It is a fraction of the size and weight of conventional mobile x-ray machines, weighing in at around 95kg, compared with the 500kg or more for a conventional imaging machine.

For hospitals this means Rover can be more easily manoeuvred through hospital corridors to a patient’s bedside in a crowed ICU, and more easily and safely positioned by radiographers.

For patients with poor mobility Rover offers the potential of X-rays at patients’ homes or in aged care facilities.

The Micro-X Rover is the second product made by Micro-X to receive Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) clearance. Its first mobile x-ray machine the Carestream DRX Revolution Nano was listed on the ARTG in April 2019 and many units have been sold across Australia since then.

A version of the Micro-X Rover, specifically designed for veterinary practices was recently put into veterinary service at the Gawler Animal Hospital.

Instead of using a hot filament to produce electrons as in traditional x-ray tubes, Micro-X uses carbon nanotube (CNT) emitter technology to generate the stream of electrons. It’s smaller, more energy efficient and longer lasting, like LED lights.

This allows the huge weight reductions in the x-ray unit, as well as more precision and responsiveness in controlling x-ray output.

Images

Micro-X Rover is a mobile digital x-ray imaging unit that’s lighter, cheaper, more robust, and more reliable than the competition
Credit: Micro-X
Micro-X Rover is a mobile digital x-ray imaging unit that’s lighter, cheaper, more robust, and more reliable than the competition
Credit: Micro-X

About Micro-X

Micro-X Limited (the Company) is an ASX listed hi-tech company developing and commercializing a range of innovative products for global health and security markets, based on proprietary cold cathode, carbon nanotube (CNT) emitter technology.  The electronic control of emitters with this technology enables x-ray products with significant reduction in size, weight, and power requirements, enabling greater mobility and ease of use in existing x-ray markets and a range of new and unique security and defence applications.  Micro-X has a fully vertically integrated design and production facility in Adelaide, Australia.  A growing technical and commercial team based in Seattle is rapidly expanding Micro-X’s US business.

Micro-X’s product portfolio is built in four, high margin, product lines in health and security. The first commercial mobile digital radiology products are currently sold for diagnostic imaging in global healthcare, military, and veterinary applications.  An X-ray Camera for security imaging of Improvised Explosive Devices is in advanced development.  The US Department of Homeland Security has selected Micro-X to design a next-generation Airport Checkpoint Portal with self-service x-ray.  A miniature brain CT imager for pre-hospital stroke diagnosis in ambulances, is being developed with funding from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund.

For more information visit:  www.micro-x.com