CANopen networks in medical devices

Source: CAN Newsletter June 2009

Siemens uses embedded CANopen networks to control stands, collimator, patient table and other sub-systems in several of its diagnostic medical devices. Recently, the Catholic Medical Center in Seoul, Korea has ordered a total of seventy systems of medical equipment. Worth around 28 million €, the order is one of the biggest of its kind in the medical industry worldwide. Siemens will equip the departments for radiology, nuclear medicine, oncology, cardiology and emergency medicine in the eight hospitals that make up the Catholic Medical Center. Siemens has also signed a service contract with the Medical Center for maintenance, upkeep and permanent monitoring of the equipment. One of the eight hospitals, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, is Korea’s biggest hospital and has been opened in April 2009. Catholic Medical Center becomes a mammoth multi-medical science complex where a 2 000-bed facility, research and education is taking place.
The systems Siemens will be supplying to the Catholic Medical Center hospitals include magnetic resonance and computer tomography scanners, angiograph, X-ray, fluoroscopy and ultrasound machines, as well as equipment for nuclear medicine, mammography and radiation therapy.