The GE OEC C-Arm series is a mobile C-Arm market dominated for the last few decades; however, those systems selling in the market are 20 plus years used systems with old technologies and interfaces. There are new systems from GE, but due to the high price point of the new OEC Elite and OEC Elite CFD series (around $200,000 USD), physicians still like to purchase a refurbished mobile C-Arm. The price range varies between $50,000 to 150,000 USD depending on the system condition and quality of system refurbishment, and how many key components changed such as a battery, a monitor, and an X-ray tube. Also, the price becomes much different whether refurbished by GE itself or a third-party ISO (Independent Service Organizations). In addition, the price of parts and repair is still very expensive, and it is difficult to get parts to reduce the system down time. Hundreds of units of the refurbished OEC 9800 are sold in the USA every year. However, more than 10 years of pre-owned medical equipment in a tough clinical environment may have higher risks of problems with the mechanical parts and lowered functionality on X-ray tubes and other generator and power supplies. Unless it’s covered by an expensive warranty through GE or ISO (Independent Service Organizations), the cost of repair will be extremely high.

Considering the above situations, customers may feel adverse towards an old and refurbished GE mobile C-Arm because of the similar budget investment; there is a reasonable selection of mobile C-Arms with proprietary technologies and up-to-date user interfaces. The Genoray OSCAR 15 and ZEN-7000 are two of typical and good examples in the current market. The Genoray OSCAR 15 is very highly recommended with its distortion-free superior image quality and a large field of view of flat panel detector. It is integrated with a highly performable 15 kW X-ray rotating tube, which has proven reliability for the last 20 years on the ZEN-7000. The unprecedented long X-ray anode cooling rate with the OSCAR series’ unique active cooling system creates highly satisfied users whenever they require accurate diagnosis and further surgical and vascular procedures. None of the refurbished GE OEC systems can meet these standards. In addition, features that assist the user to enhance dose management like, “Low Dose Mode”, “Dose Structured Report”, “Virtual Collimator”, and “Auto Collimation”, comes standard with the OSCAR series. A user of the OSCAR series can enjoy enhanced workflow with a large, full touch screen with preview mode. The system is lightweight, and positioning of the system is relatively easy with smooth maneuverability and wheeling, especially with its 155° wide orbital rotation to help a user have a smooth operation procedure without unlocking the wheel of the C-Arm. The OSCAR series is one of the most proprietary systems series on the market and is built on very flexible and advanced S/W architecture, so features are highly customizable, storage is huge (up to 4 Terabytes), and system updates are easy. Along with a large storage capacity and DICOM standard in the system, “ZENIS” a total image management system in the OSCAR series, enables image acquisition, storage, measurement/annotation (length, angle, and input and storage of line, arrow, characters), management (invert, rotation, zoom in/out, magnification, etc.), and communication.

In conclusion, the GE OEC series is still popular even though they are between 10 to 20 year- old used systems, but they are difficult to justify all the functionalities and the superiority against the Genoray OSCAR 15. The lifetime of C-Arms is relatively longer compared to other medical equipment, but still, the concept is acceptable when the system of the monitor and X-ray tube are regularly changed to keep a certain standard of image quality. Generally, refurbished OEC series are offered with a limited warranty of one year or no warranty at all. If a customer wants to purchase a C-ARM for the next 5 to 10 years, the customer must consider the maintenance cost and parts scarcity within 1 to 2 years. A very limited number of people still have a CRT monitor TV or a 2G flip phone; however, a large portion of physicians still buy pre-owned C-ARMs since an up-to-date and fully digital interface C-ARM is still too expensive. Considering this information, what if there is a brand-new CFD C-ARM with 2 to 5 years warranty, proven durability and quality in more than 500 clinical sites in the USA, and is inexpensive compared to the refurbished GE OEC series – don’t you need to consider the brand-new, affordable CFD C-ARM as your system for next 10 years?