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- Frequency is the key to health: US medtech giant requests radio frequencies in Russia
Frequency is the key to health: US medtech giant requests radio frequencies in Russia
American GE HealthCare, associated with industrial giant General Electric, has applied to expand the list of bands authorized in the Russian Federation for use by industrial and medical installations, Izvestia has learned. The requested 101 MHz band is needed for operation of modern magnetic resonance tomographs (MRI), participants of the medical equipment market note. Allocation of bands to companies from unfriendly countries is practically a precedent event, but in the situation with medical equipment clinics may be left without high-tech devices, experts warn.
Why an American medtech giant needs radio frequencies in Russia
The State Commission on Radio Frequencies (SCRF) at its meeting at the end of December may allocate frequencies in the 101 MHz range for so-called high-frequency devices to an indefinite number of persons. This follows from the SCRF materials, which were familiarized by Izvestia. The application for allocation was filed by LLC "GI Healthcare", associated with the American General Electric and formed as its medical division (now it is a company GE HealthCare). The allocation is planned to be formalized by amendments to the earlier SCRC decision regulating the use of high-frequency devices in the Russian Federation, which includes a wide class of equipment that uses waves for purposes other than radio communication or radiolocation, including medical devices.
For which GE HealthCare devices these frequencies were needed, the available documents of the State Commission do not specify. Perhaps 101 MHz is planned to be used for magnetic resonance tomographs, one of the specialists in frequency planning did not rule out.
- Ideally, such frequencies should be standardized and should already be present in documents that regulate the use of high-frequency devices. The application for a new band may indicate that it is about the introduction of some modern innovative device," the Izvestia interlocutor believes.
"Izvestia" sent inquiries to GI Healthcare, as well as to the Ministry of Digitization, which supervises the activities of the SCRF.
The 101 MHz frequency can be used in medical equipment operating on the principles of interaction with electromagnetic waves. For example, it can be magnetic resonance tomography machines with a range from 1 MHz to 300 MHz, notes Ruslan Permyakov, an expert of the Healthnet STI market.
- The 101 MHz frequency may be chosen because of good tissue penetration and minimal interference in this spectrum or to ensure electromagnetic compatibility with other medical equipment. Probably, at this point, such bands can be used in innovative technologies related to telemedicine, remote diagnostics and high-precision non-invasive treatment methods," he believes.
General Electric ceased operations in the Russian market in early 2022, but with a caveat - GE HealthCare's operations in Russia will continue. Now, in addition to MRI systems, the company's Russian catalog includes ultrasonic diagnostic systems, complexes for monitoring the health of patients, equipment for artificial ventilation of lungs, care for newborn children, and others. According to the Rusprofile counterparty verification service, in 2023 (the most up-to-date information), GI Healthcare's revenue reached 15 billion rubles, up 27% year-on-year.
"According to the independent Brussels-based publication EU-Chronicle, US medical device manufacturer General-Electric Healthcare will soon become a near-monopoly in importing complex medical equipment to the Russian market... Due to the tightening of export controls on complex medical products imposed by the US and the withdrawal of Philips, Siemens and Canon from the Russian market, General-Electric (GE) is becoming the only supplier of complex medical equipment to Russia," the analytical company RUC reported earlier in its report
How to replace medical equipment from unfriendly countries
The main manufacturers of MRI devices in the world are GE Healthcare (USA), Siemens Healthineers (Germany), Philips NV (Netherlands), Hitachi Medical Systems (Japan). Devices of all these brands are represented in Russian medical institutions, the interviewed experts told Izvestia.
- The departure of some international transportation companies that transported goods in the western direction has led to the loss of logistics routes used. At the same time, it should be noted that the domestic market of medical equipment adapted to the task quite quickly. And now it is actively using interaction with other partners to create new logistics chains, - noted in the consortium "Medical Equipment".
They also noted that with the onset of the pandemic and the imposed sanctions, the market structure changed: there was a sharp increase in demand for high-tech diagnostic, laboratory equipment, rehabilitation equipment, surgical instruments and consumables, ventilators, pulse oximeters, cardiopulmonary resuscitation equipment, first aid kits.
- Now projects are being implemented to increase serial production of 16 types of medical equipment - in particular, electronic radiation therapy systems, cyclotrons, betatrons, linear gas pedals, computer tomographs, endoscopic ultrasound equipment, as well as consumables for these types of equipment, - added in the press service of the association.
Earlier in the Ministry of Industry and Trade "Izvestia" reported that the share of domestic medical devices in the total market in 2023 amounted to 25.4%. In the first nine months of this year, Russian manufacturers produced more than 263 thousand units of medical equipment, including more than 4.5 thousand devices for fluoroscopy, radiography and computed tomography.
"Todate, the process of localization is underway and pre-production samples of various high-tech equipment are being created, in particular, a mobile radiotherapy complex based on the technology of domestic small-size betatron, hemodialysis machine, magnetic resonance tomograph, optical coherence tomograph for ophthalmology", - specified in the department.
According to experts, Russia has no mass production of MRI devices, and the capacity of single produced devices is still lower than that of foreign analogs.
Market participants note that since the start of the SWO, the allocation of frequencies for organizations from unfriendly countries, even those not participating in the sanctions campaign and continuing to work in Russia, has become a rare, almost unprecedented event. Moreover, they are allocated to organizations whose goods or services have no Russian analogues, states Denis Kuskov, General Director of TelecomDaily. For example, last year the frequencies were granted to France Telecom's subsidiary, whose satellite resource allows Russian ships to stay in touch in the Pacific and Indian oceans: domestic companies do not have such capacities, the expert recalled. Earlier, the permission to use frequencies was extended to the American Iridium, whose communication services cover the Far North, where our satellite constellations cannot reach, the expert added.
- This approach in the case of medical equipment is associated with risks, in particular, leaks abroad of various types of medical data. But the most unpleasant thing is that a manufacturer from an unfriendly country can stop working in Russia at any moment under the pressure of political circumstances. And this means that patients may find themselves without help and diagnostics, and medical institutions - without modern equipment, - says Denis Kuskov.
In his opinion, in such a situation it is necessary to increase the level of information security in medicine, to build in advance logistics and payment chains in case of termination of supplies of certain medical devices, and most importantly - to actively carry out their import substitution.
Valery Kodachigov, Maxim Dubovikov, Sofia Prokhorchuk, Valeria Mishina worked on this article.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
