Hamamatsu Photonics claims to be the first in the world to achieve high accuracy medical imaging without image reconstruction by utilising a pair of detectors, and unique light detection and signal processing techniques.
Applying these research results, they are promising to achieve a completely innovative new type of radiation medical imaging system capable of making speedy diagnoses from a simple, compact setup yet with the same or higher accuracy than currently used radiation imaging systems including positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT). This will help boost inspection efficiency for detecting diseased tissues or organs, such as from cancer, and also reduce the radiation exposure dose, alleviating the load on the patient and medical staff.
These research results were gained through a joint effort with a group led by Simon Cherry, a distinguished professor at UC Davis School of Medicine in the US, a group led by Professor Yoichi Tamagawa at University of Fukui in Japan, and with Professor Tomoyuki Hasegawa at Kitasato University in Japan. The major results were published in the electronic edition of “Nature Photonics”, a British scientific journal.