Despite expanding diagnostic imaging, Canada lags behind other developed countries

Canada has significantly boosted its supply of diagnostic scanners since 2003 but the number still lags behind other developed countries.

In 2007, there were 419 CT scanners and 222 MRI machines installed and working, up from 325 and 149, respectively, four years earlier, the Canadian Institute for Health Information said in its report, titled Medical Imaging in Canada, 2007, releasedThursday.

Despite the increase, the supply translates into 12 CT scanners and six MRI machines per million population. That is below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developmentmedian of 15 CT scanners and seven MRI machines per million population in 2005, the latest year for which data is available, the institute said.

"Increases in the number of imaging scanners over the last few years mean that the majority currently installed and in use in Canada are less than six years old," Francine Anne Roy, the institute's director of health resources information, said in a release.

"These newer machines are using the latest technology to produce more detailed scans."

The advantages of the latest CT scanners include:

• Better images.
• Faster imaging speed.
• Greater coverage of the body.
• Different setups to reduce the feeling of claustrophobia and to accommodate large patients.

The technological advance has allowed doctors to image the heart non-invasively, and perform virtual colonoscopies.

As of Jan. 1, 2007, there were 18 PET/CT scanners in Canada and 13 PET scanners.Positron emission tomography or PET scans are used to detectcancerous tumours, some brain disorders and diseases of the heart and other organs. By combining PET and CT imaging, doctors are able to look at how organs are working, while seeing anatomical details of tissues at the same time.

While both the number of machines and number of exams performed per scanner have increased, the number of people who operate the machines and interpret the images stayed about the same between 2003 and 2006.

Canada had 16,464 medical radiation technologists in 2006, up from 15,289 in 2003.