Carestream Health, a Rochester-based dental and medical imaging company, recently announced a partnership with the UBMD Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Program at the University at Buffalo that could lead to the introduction of a portable 3D medical imaging solution in doctors’ offices across the country.

According to the Rochester Business Journal, Carestream and the sports medicine program will work together to refine the functions of three prototype cone beam CT (CBCT) imaging systems. Some funding for the prototypes has come from the NFL and the Department of Defense, as both organizations are interested in the ability of Carestream’s device to depict injuries more realistically and make them more easily identifiable.

“CT stand for computed tomography, a system in which X-ray scanners rotate 360 degrees around a subject taking a series of individual pictures,” the Rochester Business Journal article explains. “The individual images or slices are combined by software to make a 3-D image of an internal organ or bone.”

In addition to their appeal to sports teams, especially local teams like the Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bills, the portable CBCT imaging system can immensely benefit individual practices.

Carestream expects to sell the CBCT system in the $250,000 to $300,000 range, a major reduction in pricing from the typical $1 million price tag on the room-sized scanners that are most commonly seen in hospitals.

This will allow doctors to charge their patients much less for a CT scan — and when a major portion of the 1,071,932 bankruptcies filed last year came about as a result of unmanageable medical debt, every penny saved helps.

Another advantage of Carestream’s device is its portability and versatility. According to the Rochester Business Journal, the CBCT scanner can plug into an ordinary wall socket and can even scan a patient’s injury while the patient is standing up. Typical CT scanners require the patient to lie prostrate for the image to be constructed. The CBCT system also uses minimal amounts of radiation.

According to 13 WHAM News, Carestream plans to make its CBCT system available within the next few years.