by Dr Evelyn Ho

Mr Madhav Phatak, General Manager, MR Business Assia Growth Markets, GE Healthcare

It was smack in the middle of a Sunday but that did not deter people turning up for a talk by Mr Madhav Phatak, General Manager of the MR Business Asia Growth Markets GE Healthcare. Radiologists, radiographers and related industry members made up the audience. 

Mr Phatak, spoke on disease being a genetic process and that a new model for radiology, called molecular imaging, was required for therapies at molecular levels. Diagnostic information (anatomical) obtained with radiographs, Ultrasound, Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) had evolved to give cellular information using Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Nuclear Medicine, Perfusion sequences and later MRI enhancement to diagnosis at molecular level using MR-spectroscopy and marker proteins.  

Molecular medicine comprised imaging and therapy. Molecular imaging allowed in-vivo (within a live organism/being) characterization and measurement of biological processes at the cellular or molecular level while diagnostics involved the analysis of biomolecules to screen, diagnose and monitor human health status and assess potential risks. Molecular therapy strategy would be based on ‘payload’ of the toxins or drugs tagged to targeted molecules e.g. micro-bubbles with Ultrasound.

Developments in MR technology was such that metabolic function would be added to that of anatomical and functional information. GE was able to do this with a technique known as ‘hyperpolarisation’ and new contrast media. 

The talk ended with lunch at 12 noon followed by the College of Radiology’s Extraordinary General Meeting.

Listening attentively to Mr Madhav Phatak’s talk	Dr Felix Sundram chats with Dr Malkit Dhillon during lunch	Buffet lunch is served