Canon is off the starting blocks to provide imaging hubs for the Commonwealth Games

Canon Medical Systems UK is ramping up plans to provide three specialist Sports Imaging Hubs to athletes and their support teams at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Canon will provide imaging modalities including AI-assisted CT and MRI, diagnostic ultrasound and digital radiography with full health IT connectivity to the NHS trust supporting the event. The hubs will provide early detection, prevention and faster rehabilitation of sports injury and surveillance. They will be located at three sites for three weeks across the Birmingham 2022 campuses.

A new mobile cardiac laboratory provided by Professor Guido Pieles, the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, HCA Healthcare and Canon will also be available. It will provide athletes with specialised cardiac performance evaluation using ECG techniques, and resting and exercise stress 4D echocardiography using Canon’s ultrasound system. This helps to provide in-depth assessment of cardiac anatomy and function to identify pre-existing cardiac abnormalities and guide optimal sports medicine management and follow-up.

“Understanding the way the heart works, or identifying weaknesses in cartilage or joints is so important in elite sports as our long-term research with other sporting organisations has shown,” commented Canon Medical UK managing director Mark Hitchman. “This not only safeguards the future health of elite sports people, but it can also assist with training programmes or injury rehabilitation.”

Picture: Canon Medical UK managing director Mark Hitchman with Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games mascot Perry.

Published on page 3 of the November 2021 issue of RAD Magazine.