Product: CT – Computed Tomography Developer: Dr. Avraham Suhami Company: Elscint Start of Development: 1974
Computed Tomography (CT) was invented in 1972, by Godfrey Hounsfield, a physicist and Nobel laureate, who sold his invention to EMI, which built the first CT. Prof Saadia Amiel of the Soreq Nuclear Research Center suggested to Avraham Suhami, founder of Elscint and a Nuclear Physicist from the Technion, to develop a CT. Elscint, originally founded as a subsidiary of Elron which was founded by Uzia Galil, had already developed medical imaging nuclear cameras, mechanical scanners, X-ray detectors and fast electronics, and had been the first Israeli company listed on NASDAQ. The company had utilized several technologies needed to build a CT. What was lacking was a computer to create a 3D image of body sections, traversed by X-Rays from multiple directions. A small team comprising Zvi Netter, Dan Inbar, Dan Ben-Zeev, Dan Laor, David Freundlich, and Zvi Beer, all young graduates of the Technion and the Hebrew University under the management of Dr. Suhami, were able to develop and build, a sophisticated, intricate, electromechanical tomograph controlled by a unique computer and software, in a record time of only 2 years. The initial CT introduced in 1976 was followed by improved models over the years and became an overwhelming success, with sales reaching hundreds of CT units. In 1981 Elscint acquired the Pfizer CT business and reached 10 percent of the Global CT Market.
By the mid-1970s the CT was regarded as the peak of Israeli technology and when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Israel, in 1977, he was shown Elscint’s Medical Imaging products in Haifa.
In 1983 Elscint began the development of the MRI tomograph, that took 3 years to develop and was introduced to the market in 1986, at a price of 1 million dollars per unit. However in 1984, a record hyper-inflation (445 percent) year in Israel, the company continued the development of the MRI which by 1985 strained its financial resources. In view of the financial losses, Dr. Suhami resigned and moved to the US where he engaged in various hitech ventures. In 1996 Philips took possession of Elscint CT and GE of the Nuclear Medicine and Ultrasound businesses.
In 2016, Dr. Suhami came back to tomography with his new invention, “Velocity Tomography”, and founded “Elscint Tomography Inc.” for breast cancer detection without radiation and without compression.
