4D Medical (ASX:4DX), jumped by as much as 30% after launching the world’s first dedicated lung scanner in Sydney

Australia has become the first place in the world to get a special 4D lung scanner which can give medics an “unprecedented insight” into the organs.

In March 2022, 4DMedical announced it had successfully developed and deployed the world’s first and only dedicated lung scanner, the XV Scanner, to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney.

The scanner met key milestones under the Australian Federal Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Frontier Stage 2 initiative ahead of schedule. The development of the XV Scanner was funded through MRFF’s $28.9m five-year grant awarded to 4DMedical subsidiary Australian Lung Health Initiative Pty Ltd.

The XV Scanner integrates 4DMedical’s proprietary XV Technology™ software with purpose-built hardware, providing doctors and patients with unprecedented and highly visual insight into respiratory function via automated scans.

4D Medical Managing Director and CEO Dr Andreas Fouras, said: “From the viewpoint of doctors and patients, the scanner represents a seminal event in the global evolution of respiratory diagnoses.”Lung Foundation chief executive Mark Brooke said the device was a “breakthrough in innovation”.

“This new technology promises to revolutionise diagnostic and imaging procedures for a range of lung disease impacting children, adults and older Australians,” he said.

This unique and transformative XV TechnologyTM accurately and quickly scans lung function as the patient breathes, enabling early diagnosis and the monitoring of changes over time.

The scanner, developed in Australia, also exposes patients to lower levels of radiation than other devices.It can help patients who are extremely unwell and can’t be scanned by other devices

The XV Scanner opens the way for accelerated uptake in the Company’s core SaaS product by facilitating access to XV Technology™ for more patients, including children and the very unwell (who are unable to be scanned using conventional imaging equipment), while increasing throughput and reducing costs for healthcare providers.

Respiratory diagnostics is a US$31 billion per annum global industry. 4DMedical is disrupting this sector and is committed to providing better information to doctors and patients about lung function.

What exactly does the XV scanner do?

“In less than 10 seconds and for less radiation than one chest X-ray, you can get a full four dimensional scan of somebody’s lungs while they breathe,” Fouras explained.

“The scanner allows you to see in rich detail where the air is going in the lungs, and where the air isn’t going – which is exactly what the doctors want to see,” Fouras said

He added that the scanner is very safe as there is no radiation, dyes, or contrast agents used in the scan.

It enables highly-detailed maps of both the patterns of lung motion and pulmonary function, with functional deficits detected through local (regional) differences in movement.

“People can still go and use the X-ray scan which was invented over a hundred years ago, or they can use this new dedicated lung scanner which has multiple advantages over the X-ray,” Fouras said.

Australia’s Minister for Health and aged care the Hon Greg Hunt MP said, ultimately 4DMedical’s scanner will save lives and protect lives… as a company my hope is that this may well become the next Cochlear or Resmed or CSL.

“Every Australian should be proud of this ground-breaking Australian-made medical technology platform,” said Hunt.

“The development of the XV Scanner is a wonderful example of Australia again punching above its weight in the world of health and medical research,” he said.

More than 73.4 million diagnostic lung procedures are performed every year in the United States alone, including in patients with; asthma, COPD, acute lower respiratory tract infections, pulmonary tuberculosis, lung cancer and cystic fibrosis.