UM Researchers, in Collaboration with Xoran Technologies, Receive Grant Award for Mobile Lung CT Device

Image grid showing MCIRCC members involved in the Mobile CT Scanner project

Several MCIRCC researchers are involved in the Mobile CT project, including MCIRCC Deputy Director Robert Dickson, MD (top left); MCIRCC Associate Director Michael Sjoding, MD (top right); MeiLan Han, MD, MS (bottom left); and Craig Galban, PhD (bottom right)

NOVEMBER 12, 2021 - A team comprised of MCIRCC researchers and industry collaborators at Ann Arbor-based Xoran Technologies has received a grant award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the development of a mobile lung computed tomography (CT) device.

The device is intended for use in the ICU and will provide detailed, point-of-care lung imaging for the sickest patients—such as those with acute respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation.

“This project arose out of immediate clinical needs during the initial COVID surge,” said Dr. Robert Dickson, Deputy Director of MCIRCC and an Associate Professor in the departments of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and Microbiology & Immunology. The Mobile CT device stands to have immense clinical impact well beyond the pandemic, providing such benefits as:

  • Enabling CT scans in patients who are too clinically unstable to be transported to Radiology

  • Reducing the need to move patients with communicable diseases through the hospital

  • Providing rapidly deployable imaging technology in environments where full CT capabilities would not otherwise be possible (i.e. field hospitals)

The team’s immediate plan is to optimize the scanner over the next year and then deploy it in the Critical Care Medicine Unit to perform pilot scans.

For more information about the project, click the button below to view the full press release on the Xoran Technologies website.

Kate Murphy